When I try to participate in the Clock Tower jumping puzzle, I will get the cutscene of the tower, then see all participants standing on a cog with the cutscene video icon above everyone’s heads (which as you know prevents movement) for about 5 seconds, and then I get kicked back to the puzzle lobby.
As I’m playing from Australia, I assume this is a latency issue. It would be nice if there’s a short grace time before the puzzle starts so people with slower connections or whatever could catch up before they get kicked.
This is a relic from Beta. During early Beta Clones used to deal quite a lot of damage, and Empowered Illusions boosted this by 30%. Then they removed Clone damage and reduced Empowered Illusions to 15%, although IMO they should’ve removed it completely as it’s now a duplicate of Phantasmal Strength: nothing wrong this technically, but it does show a lack of polish.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
“Guild Wars” refers to the series of human wars that eventually led to the fall of the kingdoms of Ascalon and Orr. It’s a lore-based name basically, not a gameplay-based one.
Radiation Field is great for 18 seconds worth of AoE Weakness and a significant amount of AoE condition damage. Pain Inverter is likewise a powerful condition damage pbAoE. Technobabble is crap.
As for Elites, the Battle suit is crap, both Golems are okay.
Condition damage is calculated on a per tick basis, duration simply determines how many ticks the condition has; it has no effect at all on per tick damage.
Therefore yes, condition duration does increase condition damage in proportion (you can see this for yourself really easily… add some condition duration and the condition tooltip will show increased duration and total damage).
iMage is terrible even with a condition damage build, iDuelist is far better. In general though if you’re going for condition damage you should be using Clones + Sharper Images rather than Phantasms (though iDuelist is definitely worth conjuring).
can any1 help me with building a condition dmg elementalist?
in Elementalist
Posted by: Embolism.8106
My PvP condition build is:
30 Fire: Burning Fire, Burning Precision, Fire’s Embrace
10 Air: Zephyr’s Boon
30 Earth: Signet Mastery, Elemental Shielding, Serrated Stones
Scepter + Focus
2x Sigil of Superior Agony
6x Superior Rune of the Undead
Carrion Amulet
Carrion Jewel
Glyph of Elemental Harmony
Signet of Fire
Signet of Air
Signet of Earth
Tornado
The idea is to stick to Earth attunement for offense, switching to other attunements for defensive skills only. Stone Shards can easily maintain 15 stacks of Bleeding on the target, and you can also maintain (provided it doesn’t get cleansed) near-permanent Burning with Signet of Fire. Extra Burning can be inflicted though Fire’s Embrace and Burning Precision + Zephyr’s Boon.
Overall I’m quite happy with this build. It has excellent single-target condition DPS, and with 17245 HP and 2606 Armour (when using Rock Barrier and Signet of Earth) it can take a bit of punishment. You can also maintain Protection on yourself reasonably often with Elemental Shielding, and Focus also provides a respectable repertoire of powerful defensive skills.
You can put only 20 points in Fire and no points in Air (disposing of Burning Precision and Zephyr’s Boon), the only reason I specced it this way is because there doesn’t seem to be much else that’s worth speccing in. I am very new to Elementalist however so I may be completely wrong.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
With Rabid gear, 3 GS/Sword Clones can stack ~10 Bleeding on a target with Sharper Images. Staff Clones aren’t as heavily affected due to slower RoF, but it is still a significant chunk of DPS.
You can certainly run a condition build without Precision. The problem however is if you’re not going to use Rabid, what are you going to use? Carrion gives Vitality instead of Toughness, which may or may not be better; and Power instead of Precision, which is downright inferior (remember Precision also improves direct damage as well as condition damage for the Mesmer). Rampager’s has less condition damage, more Precision (aren’t you trying to move away from this stat?) and low Power and Vitality, not worth considering really.
Oh and there’s Shaman of course, but healing power is really a rather crappy stat unless you’re absolutely loaded with Regeneration and a bunch of little heals.
IMO there are two keys to defeating Thieves. First is to mitigate their first strike: this can be done by using skills like Chaos Storm, Counter/Riposte, Blurred Frenzy, Chaos Armour, etc. It is best to use these skills just before a Thief strikes: try to guess when they’re going to Shadowstep to you.
The second is to use stealth. By using stealth you greatly weaken their second strike capability once you’ve countered their first strike. Preferably you want to reappear from stealth after the Thief does, although this is not always possible. Having Illusions around before you stealth gives you a huge advantage in the stealth game, as they will cover for you when you reappear and will immediately attack the Thief when he/she reappears.
IMO Torch: or rather, The Prestige: is great against Thieves. It’s another reasonably spammable stealth and the AoE Blind/Burning will likely hit the Thief, stealthed or no, giving you extra defence/damage.
Just to clarify, you know that the final damage number from iWarden (and iDuelist and iBerserker) is the total damage dealt, right? You don’t add all the numbers that popped up together. The Warden is quite powerful but it isn’t leaps and bounds beyond what most other Phantasms do. You should also consider the fact that the iWarden’s attack rate is very slow (long attack + long pause between attacks), so its single target DPS is actually sub-par compared to most other Phantasms.
Anet is unlikely to nerf iWarden for a very minor PvE balance issue (IMO there isn’t one anyway), PvP balance is far more important to them. As you can imagine people generally don’t stay in the Warden’s AoE in PvP. Also, while PvE mobs tend to be stationary they can move around, and the Warden being stationary in melee range also means it’s easily killed by mobs before it can finish its attack.
The reason the Warden does a lot of damage is because its direct damage is very easily avoidable.
Currently, certain prefixes: most importantly Rabid, as it is the only “pure” prefix for condition damage builds: cannot be crafted and do not drop as loot.
For weapons and armour this is barely acceptable as you can still gain these prefixes from dungeons and sometimes karma vendors.
However: there is absolutely no way to get any Exotic jewellery with these prefixes. Given that jewellery actually contributes more to your stats than armour, this severely kittens builds that utilise these discriminated prefixes.
This needs to be remedied.
P.S. Do not tell me that there are level 80 Rabid jewellery for sale in Orr. I know that. The problem is it is only available in the form of Masterwork Accessories and Fine Rings, you cannot get Exotic versions and you cannot get a Rabid Amulet; nor can you get Exotic Rabid gems to slot into them.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
I take Torch solely for The Prestige, so it’s definitely worth taking. iMage however is rarely worth conjuring except for Shatter fodder.
Oh yes, definitely bring all weapons with you (I always do), but you’ll still find yourself sticking to certain sets instead of switching out every other battle.
Some people, when using a non-Focus weapon, like to quickly switch to the Focus for Temporal Curtain and switch back to their normal weapon before battle. Personally I find that too much hassle, but YMMV.
Only tricky part, how would shatters work if the Warden was GT? Shatter on spot? Cause it wouldn’t have a designated target to run to.
It could be tied to the closest enemy when it’s conjured, like how Deceptive Evasion Clones target the closest enemy.
If you don’t plan to take advantage of Clone death then Grimmson’s build is probably close to optimal for a Mesmer condition build.
Pistol is better for duels, Focus is better for group support. In WvW Focus is pretty much the only choice, group Swiftness/Pull and group projectile block/reflect are just too good.
Asura do have marriages. Vekk mentioned that no one is allowed to leave an Asuran wedding until the amount of love in the air is calculated.
The only change I’d like is for the Warden to be ground-targeted, or at least make it always be conjured between you and the target. Berserker could benefit from a predictable conjure point too (in fact, it could be standard Illusion behaviour; though it really only affects AoE Phantasms).
Signet of Illusions really isn’t that good as the effect only kicks in a few seconds after the Illusion is conjured, and quite often it is those initial few seconds that you need the extra health to keep Illusions alive for whatever purpose.
I guess part of getting used to the Mesmer is changing the way you think about “pets”. When conjuring a Phantasm, don’t think of it as a pet that dishes out steady DPS: think of it as a one-shot attack that, if you’re lucky, might reward you with another shot. In other words, when you use a Phantasm skill expect only the first attack, any further attacks are pleasant surprises.
Usually of course, you would get multiple attacks from a Phantasm… but if you think and plan in terms of Phantasms having just one attack, it… feels smoother, and the impact of losing a Phantasm quickly won’t be as dearly felt.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
Pistol provides a powerful CC and iDuelist has a higher damage output if you have Sharper Images with a significant investment in Precision.
My condition Mesmer uses Staff + Sword/Torch. Staff is my primary source of DPS, Sword/Torch is primarily for defense (Blurred Frenzy and The Prestige).
Sceptre is the only weapon I don’t see any point in. The only reason to take it is for Confusing Images IMO, but Blurred Frenzy is too good a burst/defense move to pass up; plus the MH Sword also provides pervasive boon denial.
I am leery of hybrid builds in general as IMO it is weakening your maximum offensive potential for very little gain. In theory investing in two different sources of damage allows you to adapt, but first you need something to adapt to; and (especially in PvE) enemies don’t tend to be more vulnerable to one type of damage over another.
What do you mean by survival? Able to take hits or really slippery (i.e. passive defense or active defense)?
For the former you probably want a Power Phantasm build based on the Soldier’s Amulet (Power-Vitality-Toughness), for the latter a Staff condition Mesmer with stealth is good.
AFAIK CD reduction traits do not affect skills without a CD. I never tested this but I think I would notice a difference if it increased the attack rate of WoC by 20%. Have you tested this?
Chaos Storm is very much a defensive skill. The main reason you want to use Chaos Storm is for the Aegis it gives you and the Daze it inflicts on enemies: generally a fight in a friendly Chaos Storm ensures you will not take damage, plus you get to Phase Retreat out of it for a free Chaos Armour. The damaging aspect of Chaos Storm is a bonus but pales in comparison to its incredible defensive potential.
Chaos Storm is not the only way to apply Confusion without Shatters: there is also Confusing Images, Confusing Combatants, Chaos Armour, Confusing Enchantments, etc.
Ethereal Combo Fields is actually a very poor way of applying Confusion by yourself as the Mesmer has few Projectile and Whirl finishers (none are available directly from the Staff), and the Confusion you can inflict through Combos is generally quite minimal; whereas with Confusion you very much want to inflict huge stacks of it at once (CoF and Confusing Images).
I understand in PvE boss fights this is different, as you have everyone else comboing your field; but really: PvE boss fights are not relevant when discussing the merits of a build. I could go in with any three-legged cat build and get a gold participation medal in a zerg vs boss situation.
The Poison inflicted by Chaos Storm lasts only 2 or 3 seconds, which is barely helpful as the main purpose of Poison is to weaken Heals; which means that for Poison to be truly effective it has to last for quite a while (as with most Poison inflicted by other professions).
I already mentioned that iWarlock is only good in PvE boss fights where the target has full stacks of Bleeding: if that’s the case then obviously the target has far more other conditions on it as well, hence contributing to iWarlock’s effectiveness. To clarify, with a true condition build my iWarlock hits about 600 damage without conditions: with 5 unique conditions it would hit 900 damage, so your iWarlock hitting 2.1k (critical I assume) with 5 conditions means you’re not quite a true condition build.
It is obvious however that we are coming from two very different viewpoints. You are obviously a PvE player, while I enjoy both PvP and PvE; but consider balance and build optimisation to be primarily a PvP issue. Like I said, you could go with any three-legged cat build in PvE and probably do okay, the PvE in this game is really not that challenging.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
Clone death traits apply when a Clone:
- Has its HP reduced to zero.
- Is replaced by another Illusion.
- Has its target killed.
It does not apply when it is Shattered.
He died to a quadruple Mind Wrack followed by a triple CoF, not to Chaos Storm.
Blink and Phase Retreat are the best skills we have for escaping any kind of CC. They also allow you to escape from knockdowns.
Shatters are considered to come from the Mesmer, not from Illusions.
Stun breakers only break Stun, they do not break Immobilise (purple chain effect). To break Immobilise you need a condition cleanser, like Mantra of Resolve.
You have more than enough skill points to buy every single healing/utility/elite skill, so I wouldn’t worry about it.
When I think a Thief is about to Shadowstep to me, I’d use some kind of reactive defense: this could mean Chaos Storm, Chaos Armour, Blurred Frenzy, a Block, etc. This will mitigate their first strike, allowing me to Blink, Phase Retreat or simply dodge out of danger.
When a Thief stealths, I’d also stealth; preferably timing it so I’d appear after the Thief appears, although if I think the Thief’s going to attack immediately I’d stealth without delay. Decoy in particular is quite excellent as an unsuspecting Thief could waste their initiative against the Clone. The Prestige is also good as it inflicts AoE Blind and Burn, which will likely hit the Thief stealth or no.
Confusion and Retaliation are very powerful against Thieves due to their fast attacks and low HP. After you’ve dealt with their initial burst + stealth I’d definitely try to hit them with stacks of Confusion and/or apply Retaliation to myself: most of my Confusion kills come from Thieves.
The above is theory of course, in practice a lot depends on whether you see a Thief coming. If you don’t see them coming then you need to be ready to Blink/Phase Retreat really really quickly, else you’d easily die to their burst.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
The real one is the one with the revive icon above its head.
At least I assume that’s the case, since enemies can tell which is the real Mesmer by looking for the red skull icon.
Chaotic Dampening – 20% CD on staff abilities is not defensive. And considering the CD on #5 just got increased because it’s SUCH a powerful skill, 20% off that CD is something I will not go without. It reduces the CD on your clone skill as well, increasing the amount of those you can spam, and iWarlock which also got a CD increase in the last patch. I take it instead of the clone on dodge skill, personally, since anytime I need to dodge I usually find Phase retreat more useful, and that doesn’t increase the amount of times you can dodge, just makes another clone, which I find very often that I’m full on if I spread them out correctly. I can see where you get your build from, and It’s probably more effective in PvP. I’m a PvE condi mesmer so that might be why I’m so insistant on this skill too. I go 0/0/25/25/20 for traits to beef up my phantasms. iMage + iWarlock + staff clone usually optimizes my damage when I’m alone. Or iWarlock x2 + iMage when in a group with a necromancer or condi-thief that’ll be applying more conditions than my staff clones will.
As a condition Mesmer your DPS is almost entirely from WoC and Staff Clones, neither of which are affected by Chaotic Dampening. The skills that the trait does affect: Phase Retreat, Chaos Armour and Chaos Storm: are all powerful defensive skills. Therefore, Chaotic Dampening is predominantly a defensive trait.
If you are a real condition Mesmer (i.e. minimal Power investment), iWarlock does pitiful damage compared to Staff Clones; so it is irrelevant except when used kittenter fodder or if the target has full stacks of Bleeding already (which only occurs in PvE boss fights).
How can anyone force you to remain in downstate almost indefinitely? All you have to do is not use 4 and let yourself bleed out.
Oh, you mean PvE. At the moment I’m not using a CondDmg build in PvE, I’m waiting or Anet to introduce Rabid jewelry first. If they refuse to do that then I’ll craft myself some Exotic Carrion jewelry I guess.
I do use Runes of the Undead as it provides the most CondDmg of all Rune sets. My gear is Rabid, CondDmg-Toughness-Precision. There really is no other choice for a condition build.
The thing is, Chaotic Transference only gives me less than 100 CondDmg, which is barely significant. I certainly am not missing out on much damage without it, and I think Crippling Dissipation and Confusing Combatants are far more useful to me than another 15 points in Chaos.
With a significant amount of healing power (Cleric’s Amulet and Runes of Dwayna) it’s 2.9k, if nothing’s changed between Beta and now. Overall healing power is a pitiful stat and should never be invested in.
The only trait I take from Chaos is Debilitating Dissipation. Mirror of Anguish’s CD is too long (reflect doesn’t properly describe what it does as you yourself are still affected by the CC). Chaotic Dampening and Illusionary Defence are nice but certainly not essential: they are both defensive traits, and a Staff Mesmer already has lots of defense.
Overall I just have more important traits to take. The most essential traits for a condition Mesmer are Deceptive Evasion (to spam Staff Clones) and Illusionary Elasticity (for double-hit on WoC), that’s 40 points. I also take Crippling Dissipation, that’s 10 points; 10 points for Debilitating Dissipation, and another 5 points for Confusing Combatants: Clone death traits are great. That leaves me 5 points, which I sink into Illusions for Shattered Strength; which mind you gives me more than half the CondDmg I’d get from Chaotic Transference and even more CondDmg when I Shatter.
I’m not saying Chaotic Transference is bad, I’m just saying that it is not necessary; and neither is 20 points in Chaos.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
The Trident is supposed to be our ranged/condition damage underwater weapon, but with the removal of Confusion from Siren’s Call the only thing still making it somewhat condition based is the Clone bug.
I turn off autoattack so I do in fact spam 1.
Mesmers generally come in two very rough flavours. Phantasm Mesmers and Clone Mesmers. The former is straight forward: you pour points into Power and maybe Precision and CritDmg and let your Phantasms do most of the work. The latter can be based on condition damage (Sharper Images), in which case you want to focus on CondDmg and Precision; or Mind Wrack, in which case your focus is similar to a Phantasm Mesmer.
This is a very rough generalisation, but for the most part Mesmer builds can be described as Clone-based or Phantasm-based. Bear in mind though that Phantasm Mesmers still use Clones and Clone Mesmers do sometimes conjure Phantasms, so it’s not an exclusive division.
Either way, all Mesmers rely on Illusions for a large part of their damage output. That is not to say you sit back and do nothing: you can still do significant amounts of damage: but a Mesmer with weak Illusions is unlikely to prosper.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
Condition damage affects, well, condition damage the same way Power affects direct damage. It increases the damage it does.
So Burning, Bleeding and Poison will do more damage per tick, and Confusion will do more damage per proc.
The best stats for a condition damage build is CondDmg-Precision-Toughness, a.k.a. Rabid. Unfortunately this set cannot be crafted and cannot be dropped: the only source is from dungeons and karma vendors, but there is no way to get Exotic jewelry with this stat (which really, really needs to be fixed).
Also? The +5% Toughness becomes CondDmg trait is by no means necessary. When it comes down to it it only gives you a small amount of CondDmg. The only reason you’d take it is if you’re already sinking 20 – 30 points into Chaos for another reason.
What I find odd about the GS is it seems to be at loss whether it wants to stay as far away as possible (Spatial Surge) or get up close and personal (Mirror Blade, you need to be close for it to tag an opponent twice).
The awkward moment when no one can tell who’s side the wrap belongs to.
Or the feedback bubble lol.
I know… is this shiny purple circle on the ground an omen of victory, or an omen of death?
While the Block/Reflect of Mimic is amazing, there is one problem. It must absorb a ranged attack before that part comes into play. Therefore despite the Block being highly useful against melee, it will never proc unless you get hit by a ranged attack first. Taking damage from the absorbed attack is also finicky making the initial effect much, much worse than the follow-up effect.
Overall it is just a highly messy skill.
In my Polish the Mesmer thread, I suggested changing Mimic to work like this:
Fire a fast-moving projectile that interrupts the target. If a skill is interrupted, Mimic temporarily becomes that skill.
This may cause animation issues with using melee attacks with an unsuitable weapon, but I’m sure that’s easily solved.
If you want boon stripping use the Sword. It strips boons on the third attack (also called Mind Stab), and Sword Clones do it too.
Level 80 Exotics is indeed the best stats you can get, but bear in mind there are different stat distributions. If a stat distribution is totally wrong for your build it isn’t going to be very useful to you.
If Illusionary Elasticity affected Clones it would be incredibly OP. It is already very powerful as it is, doubling your personal DPS.
Staff Clones can inflict comparable amounts of Bleeding as GS Clones can, plus they also inflicting a significant amount of Burning damage. They also give you lots of Might and permanent Fury, which in turn empowers them further.
+Condition/Boon duration having no effect is not a Staff Clone problem, it is common to all Clones and Phantasms.