Guild Wars 2

Winsom.2389:

Using multiple Phantasms seem to be an important component to damage dealing at this level (if not all levels?) . By swapping weapons in combat you can have 2 offensive phantasms up. In theory you could have up to 5 (or 6 an elite?) phantasm at once? I regularly have three up at once. To be clear: you can have all of your Clones AND several Phantasms up at once.

Wait what?

By “up” do you mean ready to be casted or already summoned?

You can only have up to 3 illusions (clones or phantasms) summoned at any one time, in theory and out. Summoning more would instantly kill existing illusions, prioritizing clones before phantasms, and going through phantasms in the chronological order that they were summoned in.

There isn’t an elite phantasm (our 3 elites are Moa, Time Warp and Mass Invisibility).

My huge kitten norn Mesmer would totally rock fans.

I’m a norn Mesmer.

Max height, max bulk, max butterflies.

I love it.

Lahel.6381:

Funny, cause perplexity is not broken on mesmer really, it’s the other classes getting all the whine for using it oO

One in the same. When there are threads of people appealing to “cordon off” runes, I’d rather stay away from it. Can’t accredit my doing well to a rune that way. A matter of personal preference, perhaps.

I’m still doing fine and having a blast with Nightmare runes, so I’ve not really seen the real need to switch over to perplexity.

Xavi.6591:

@Deathreign,

Why would you use Nightmare runes over Perplexity? That is definitely a loss in damage.

Explained in my initial post.

MountainPanda.5831:

Hi xavi, you use full rabid for your variant? Would superior sigil of doom be better for this? I noticed that after I replaced my superior sigil of energy with superior sigil of doom, my survivability went down but dps went up.

Death, mind sharing your setup as well??

What I’m currently using: http://tinyurl.com/m82qpgl

It’s basically a carbon copy of the original, but with a few tweaks.

Runes: I use Superior Runes of the Nightmare mainly because I’m using a full set of TA gear, but it worked so well when I first tried it, I stuck with it. Also with all the complains and QQs going around about perplexity runes, I don’t have to feel bad about winning since I don’t use them.

Sigils: swapped out sigils of corruption and blood for Superior Sigils of Energy. More clone pooping with DE when need be. I plan on swapping out purity as well, but haven’t really gotten around to doing it.

Trinkets: I don’t actually have ascended rings, but the rest are as they are displayed on the build maker. My current rings are rare carrion rings with chrysocola gems, but I plan on changing them soon. Still haven’t lost a 1v1 in a really long time though.

Traits: all the same except the fact that I added Desperate Decoy. I’ve read that it’s buggy but it has been working for me and I’ve been very happy with it.

Utilities: same as the original, but I swap veil for Mantra of Resolve from time to time, depending on how much I need it.

Gear: same as the original less the scepter (I’m using a carrion scepter), due to the fact that I found it as a drop and am too cheap/poor to buy another exotic scepter for minor stat difference. It might not be elitist optimal, but it works.

Yeah, that’s basically it. I usually solo roam and I’ve beaten most people that I’ve dueled even with being too cheap to use food! Won more 1v2s than lost too, but any more than that and I usually am only able to down 1 before deciding to run or getting downed myself.

All in all it’s a great, strong build that I thoroughly enjoy playing.

Xyonon.3987:

DeathReign.7821:

Easy way to solve this. Make the warden spawn on your location (or next to you) like other ranged phantasm and iDefender.

So … if i cast him on 1200 range it spawns next to me having it’s greatest fight with a allmighty mob called “air”? Noty.

That’s why you don’t summon it 1200 range away? It’s the same logic as having an aoe target for the iWarden, only you are the target. Position yourself to where you want the iWarden to be and summon him.

Sure as hell gives you a more manipulative positioning option for him than now, with minimal changes with no debatable complications (like AoE casting etc).

Grats!

I run a tweaked blackwater build in WvW as well. It’s a lot of fun 1vX and I’ve not lost a 1v1 in a really long time.

Easy way to solve this. Make the warden spawn on your location (or next to you) like other ranged phantasm and iDefender.

I would personally prefer iWarden to walk and follow his target if he gets out of range, but that seems like a further cry than this one.

Chaos.3579:

DeathReign.7821:

I’d like iWarden to walk to his target if and when he gets knocked back and/or his target moves to attack something else.

I’d also like iDisenchanter to not spawn at the most awkward places and instead spawn like the other ranged phantasms (iWarlock, iDuelist and iMage) next to you.

Mantras. How to get started on mantras… Well if anything I’d like mantras to be refilled (or have the option to be recharged) if you’ve already used 1 charge and are out of combat.

Oh, and it’d be awesome if staff clones’ attacks actually bounced all the time. Would make iElasticity much more valuable.

I warden is not made for damage. It’s made for projectlies protection/reflects(with trait)

The ability to control were they spawn and use their first attack would be nice though.

I would say that it would be infinitely more annoying both PvP and PvE for the iWarden to follow its target. If you spawned it on a ranged character PvP, all they have to do now is strafe slightly to the side and continue shooting while your warden starts, stops and restarts his attack cycle pointlessly on his spawn point. If he were to constantly follow that character, they would have to constantly reposition. Same logic when using it on a melee character. If you are meleeing someone and plan to sit in your warden’s bubble to reflect incoming ranged hits, all they have to do is move 4 steps in order to make your 20+ second cd Warden wasted. If the warden were to follow, there isn’t a doubt in my mind that there would be more reflective uptime.

PvE, Warden does count for damage. I run a sword/focus build PvE with iDefender and iDisenchanter for utility skills so iWarden is my main offensive phantasm, one easily negated by the mob either knocking him back or moving 3 steps to hit another target.

I’d like iWarden to walk to his target if and when he gets knocked back and/or his target moves to attack something else.

I’d also like iDisenchanter to not spawn at the most awkward places and instead spawn like the other ranged phantasms (iWarlock, iDuelist and iMage) next to you.

Mantras. How to get started on mantras… Well if anything I’d like mantras to be refilled (or have the option to be recharged) if you’ve already used 1 charge and are out of combat.

Oh, and it’d be awesome if staff clones’ attacks actually bounced all the time. Would make iElasticity much more valuable.

@Nretep you can manipulate the placement of ranged phantasms, I.e. warlock, duelist etc. But yeah, generally the placement of melee phantasms doesn’t matter since they walk to their target to smack them (or spawn on them) anyway.

But yeah, just summon more really.

I’m no where near well read on the matter, but I would assume that mimic’s absorbed projectile would work differently from a directly reflected projectile with feedback for example.

For example, Feedback on the last boss of Arah p1 deals something like 90k on him where there is no way that I could hit that hard based on stats alone.

Did you try putting up feedback on the warrior and get him to kill shot again?

Thank you guys for your input! I’ve definitely learned a lot, and really appreciate it!

@skcamow, Thanks for the tip on Ruby Orbs! I see now why it’s so popular – cheap and efficient, really nice. I’m still at a tug-of-war between getting a power based ascended trinket or a condition based one though, as I do both WvW and PvE.

@Colesy, Wow, didn’t know that! Thanks for the info. Will definitely be something to consider, but like you said, farming a set of berserker gear from the dungeons would be cheaper (seeing as how I’ve already got a couple of tokens from each as it is). We’ll see how it goes!

@Pyroatheist, Thanks again for pitching in. I figured eventually that condition builds really aren’t that great in PvE as a mesmer, even with Sharper Images and the lot. I ended up paying more attention to the actual hits of the phantasms than to the conditions they were putting on the bosses/mobs, hence steering me towards conceding to power/precision. I did end up getting the full set of Rabid Armor, and WvW has never been as fun as running Natsu Dragneel’s Blackwater build!

Hey everyone,

So I made a thread about a month ago for some advice and got some really helpful tips (especially from Pyroatheist), and changed my build a little bit. (Thank you for that!)

At this point of time, I’m running a 0/20/0/25/25 Phantasm build for PvE with a full set of Rampager gear (http://tinyurl.com/koxuccm), which, as has been pointed out to me the first time around, is extremely squishy and not as good DPS-wise as a set of Berserker gear.

I’ve been doing tons and tons of TA recently (really just to hang with a friend of mine), and am 2 runs away from getting a full set of gear. I realized that the choices were limited to Ramager, Rabid and Magi, so I went to look for a build that I could use to match the armor choices. I came across Natsu Dragneel’s Blackwater Guide (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-The-Blackwater-Mesmer-Condition-WvW), and decided that that would fit nicely with the Rabid set of gear that I would get from TA, making my build essentially this:http://tinyurl.com/n6c23bv (Basically an exact replica of Natsu Dragneel’s Blackwater mesmer minus the runes) for WvW. Now I quite like playing the phantasm build for PvE, so will this armor set still be viable for it? I realize the DPS will go down marginally but if not, what would the most optimal build for Rabid gear be, PvE wise?

I’m also currently thinking of farming up for Berserker gear, which I aim to get for PvE (since I’m already so used to the “squishyness” seeing as how I already have a pseudo-berserker build set) which would eventually look like this: http://tinyurl.com/l7ffrel. Are the Ogre runes the right way to go? What about the trinkets?

Another question I have are about trinkets. I currently have enough Guild Commendations to get 1 Ascended Trinket, and was wondering which would be the best path to take – I suppose it depends on which build I choose to run, but any pro tips would be well appreciated.

Thank you guys for your time. Any suggestions or advice would be very much appreciated!

Cheers.

Chuckles Yeah I fully intend to do so. Hope you’ll be able to advise again when I do!

Ah so I can use my current weapons for the swap in the mean time?

And yeah I’ve got a rare piece of each other weapon just in case, but have only found use for the torch for, as you said, stealthing past certain dungeons.

I guess I’ll just have to come up with a better stat spread for gear.

Thank you again for the tips. They were just what I was looking for.

Got it. Will go tinker more with builds focusing on power and try integrating it into my play style. I’m guessing that power builds don’t have much room for the staff seeing as how condition/ kite based it seems. Would power/zerker builds mainly incorporate Greatswords and S/F? Or Sc/P?

Thank you guys for the feedback!

Regarding the weird weapon stats: they were budget buys that I made a month or so back (probably about 1 gold each) just to have an exotic weapon set without actually having done a run through of the build.

Regarding the runes: yeah sorry that was a mistake on my part when editing the build on the site. No tormenting runes at all lol.

So the main changes I have to make are my gear options? Because I have no problems with that at all, as I’ve been planning on doing so eventually – currently just using budget buys and making do.

If I wanted to play a condition build, would that amount to a shatter build? Sorry I’m clearly still very new to specialized play.

Thank you guys again for your time and advice! Really appreciate it.

Hey guys,

I’m pretty new to the forums and have basically been lurking in search of builds to adjust to but didn’t really find any that suited my play style.

I leveled up mostly using a Greatsword/Staff with traits that amounted to 30/10/0/0/30 with trait skills focusing on +power, iElasticity and the works but ended up feeling like I could live with either one or the other. In that I mean that I could basically play effectively with one weapon and completely forgetting about the other. I realized that this made it redundant to have a swap slot so I tried to look for a new build that would mesh nicely together.

I came up with this (for solo roaming): http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.0%7Cc.5b.h14.d.1a.h1%7C6.1q.hf%7C1o.b18.1o.b18.1o.b18.1o.b18.1o.71q.1o.71q%7C1o.63.1o.63.1o.63.1o.63.1o.63.1b.63%7Ca3.k2a.0.f5.p3a%7C0.0%7C31.3j.35.36.3o%7Ce

10/20/0/15/25 Staff/Sword + Focus. For utility skills I use Mantra of Resolve (because of the multiple casts and lower cool down than null field), Mirror Images (for condition stacks on staff, or for a quick boost in healing with Ether Feast) and Phantasmal Defender (for general mitigation of damage).

I realized that the utilities I was using wasn’t very well suited for some dungeon runs so I tweaked it a bit for dungeons using Null Field (for the AoE), Phantasmal Disenchanter (for when Null Field is on cool down) and Phantasmal Defender (for general mitigation of damage again). I also swap out Deceptive Evasion for Blade Training, making my build a pseudo phantasm build I suppose.

In terms of gear I have a cheap set of ravenous exotic armor and weapons (basically what you see in the link minus the magic find due to the update to runes of scavenging). My trinkets aren’t actually exotic, just a mix of ravenous greens and yellows, minus the back piece which is exactly as it is in the link above.

I focus on precision and condition damage because of Sharper Images, making any crits my illusions or I make into bleeding stacks. Not to mention burning from Winds of Chaos!

What do you guys think? This build is for PvE as that’s majority of what I do, though I might try WvW or sPvP sometime.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Joonks.7501:

ViRiD.2784:

These two abilities far too drastically influence our interaction with our main class mechanic, Illusions. They’re extremely restrictive to build creativity, and immensely overpowered in their effect on our ability to generation illusions.

I do not believe that their existence will ever allow mesmers to truly explore the diversity of their trait lines until they are removed, and mesmers are compensated for their loss.

You don’t know much about mesmers and it shows. Any phantasm build will exclude DE because clones will begin to override when 3 phantasms are up. I especially liked how you said phantasm builds are inferior to shatter builds – that’s such a nonsensical statement. What does “inferior” even mean in this context, because our strongest 1v1 build is a phantasm build.

I’d like to meet the mesmer who spanked you in PvP/WvW and shake his/her hand. I’m guessing you got confused because so many illusions were out. Here’s some advice – party up and call target on the mesmer as soon as you see him, then repeat that every time you get a bearing on him. Illusions are a class mechanic of ours, taking away traits that improve our ability to create them makes absolutely no sense.

This. All this.