Guild Wars 2

Thirding…I’ve gone as far as key-binding it to “W” (I don’t dodge forward) so that I’m spamming it easily and often. More damage for 5 points + the other good stuff.

For what it’s worth, here’s my take..although my crit dmg is higher than what is shown. I believe that you can make a more damage focused gaurdian with all the survival benefits that come from our class….it’s just a matter of finding what works with your play-style and skill level. I’m admittedly not super amazing, thus the knight’s gear, but with gold earned from a week of playing, you can adjust your gear to try to find a good balance of dmg vs survival.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUEQJARSlYg67WESIEfIFRuAbGEEgVKi39wUoxMC-jAzAYLM8VgIMRjKAkALiGbVbIa1uwqXwUnJVDLIbvFk9GKrCBUeMA-e

FWIW I changed-up from a standard AH build to a 20/25/0/20/5 build and am finding it to be a blast. Mostly knights gear/4xDivinity+2xEarth runes give enough protection with hammer if I need it. Zealous GS and omnom pies offer enough heals in-between heal skill. My damage is so much higher it makes PVE seriously fun!

Stat’s super buffed with stones and truffle steak din din.

I like the top set better FWIW.

So I may be late to the party, but I just found out about autohotkey and how it makes it possible (and “legal”) to assign keys to mouse-wheel up/down. I have mine set-up to punch virture of justice on scroll down, but of course you may use any skill you want just by changing the appropriate script (zoom will still function). Just follow the simple instructions on making a new folder and voila!

#IfWinActive, Guild Wars 2 ahk_class ArenaNet_Dx_Window_Class
Wheeldown:: ; Proffesion skill 1
{
Send {Wheeldown}
Send {F1}
}
Return

Bowll.6314:

I like the wings!

Me too! With the dragon-themed primeval armor and dragonbash helm, I’m deluded into believin’ that I’m one tough lil’ dragon XD.

It is the Primeval+dragonbash helm and wings. It changes colors to a variable shade of “metallic” depending on the zone when the juggers is drawn. It can be bright silver, gunmetal, black, golden, baby-poop green…prob. more that I haven’t seen yet.

Plixxa with juggs.

Plixxa with juggs.

Plixxa with juggs!

Take both if you can…I do. I have +10% protection duration runes and used with hammer, I don’t really need WOP. With GS I can feel a tangible difference between having 2HM or not.

Mmmm…..perhaps think of your sword as your main and your staff as your defensive, use when necessary secondary weapon? When you start to get overwhelmed, switch to staff and punch #5, bring up your phantasm and hit #2 to bounce back and gain chaos armor. As soon as things get a bit less squirrely….switch back to sword, run forward and hit #3 twice then blurred frenzy to finish. Rinse and repeat FTW. And dodge, dodge and dodge some more!

I’m trying to message someone in-game that I’ve never met (head of a guild), and have their name as well as their “account” name. How do I do this? A whisper with their name in front or something? Thank you for your time,

Plixxa

I do it!….when I can’t do anything else.

True Tarsius….
Now that I think about it, considering the slow hits of the hammer, I’ll need every critical hit I can get in order to maximize AH, the lifesteal sigil and EM.
I guess the oil wins?

Right, since I’m at ~ 50% (56 with oil, 48 without), I’m not sure if the 8% is worth the 184 point increase in power. The only thing that gives me pause is the “on crit” effects I have…(sigil of blood, vigorous precision and empowering might). Here’s a pic of my traits as well:

If I’m running a high toughness build with around 50% crit chance + blood sigil (lifesteal on proc) + truffle rav. food (more toughness), what would be a better choice:

Master mantenience oil to increase crit chance to around 55%
or
Superior sharpening stone for the power increase?

Top screenshot shows ravioli plus oil numbers
Bottom shows ravioli plus stone numbers

Thank you for your time.

Found it! It’s “khaki” here with celestial and abyss.

Found it! It’s “khaki” here with celestial and abyss.

Mmm, I’ll give those a shot. Any other recommendations are welcome.

Ok, Thanks Sailsd. I’ll give them a shot. Any other recommendations welcome as well.

I’m an Asura gaurdian with T3 cultural heavy and I’m having a real hard time coming up with a dye combo that looks good with Sunrise. I tried to use lighter dyes like silver etc. but they tend to look “washed-out” on this armor. Abyss looks shiny……only I’d rather keep a color combo that better represents the class (ie-brighter, good-guy colors). Any suggestions?

I’m an Asura gaurdian with T3 cultural heavy and I’m having a real hard time coming up with a dye combo that looks good with Sunrise. Any suggestions?

I switched over to Piken EU even though I’m in NA. No problems with increased lag and I got scooped-up by a RP guild in my first hour of hopping over. Worth a thought.

Anybody know the dye that matches the gold-ish hilt bits on Sunrise? Thank you for your time.

Agreed, I just popped-on my Gaurd. and kept dodging only to find that I was well below being able to do so….thanks a lot Mes. class…..you have ruined me for what I assumed would be my main.

Nice shot, you look super upset and ready to slay some Inquest with that SuperGS! 8.5/10
Here’s my new Mes in Ebonhawk, where it’s always autumn. I’m wearing cultural t3 in celestial/charcoal:

Wow, Spartan..crazy screenshot! Here’s my wee one in cultural t3 with charcoal/celestial:

Agreed, I’m baffled as to why A-net continues to alienate it’s customers by not fixing what should be simple re-writes precluded by actual testing in various scenarios. This should be the “fine-tuning” phase of the game, but has turned into a shell game of “fixing” this and kittening-up that. Come-on Anet…..focus on these pre-existing conditions and stop trying to squeeze more funds out of us via the gem store. Nobody cares about your mini’s.

Curunen.8729:

No prob.

I run a very similar build now – 10/25/20/10/5, the only difference in traits being reduced blink cooldown in chaos instead of debilitating dissipation, and mender’s purity instead of compounding celerity.

Also if you take mirror images it’s a useful clone “detonator” for the cripple – works well with sword clones (in addition to usual shatter fodder and stun break).

In fact, I may as well just link it here for comparison: http://goo.gl/iWyny

Yes, after looking at this, I think these point allotments are actually a better way to distribute. I feel a bit foolish for not catching my “mistake” without your help, but thank you indeed..

No, I don’t absolutely need it, but it’s a stepping-stone to get to Compounding Celerity, which is one of the key components to the build (and the HP boost is welcome as well). Honestly, nothing in Illusions is attractive to me in reference to this particular build, though your mileage may vary. I wish I could take the speed boost and still have…..oh kitten, your right…I only need to go 10 deep to get it. Well, back to the drawing board. Thanks for pointing that out Curu.

Undead Huntress

Here’s a modification of a clone suicide+s/s/staff PVE build that is designed for hunting in Orr (you can, of course, mod it to not unclude the sigil or reduced condition time). The synergistic components revolve around the intended gameplay:
Mid-range use of the staff to initiate/apply chaos storm boons and conditions if possible.
Bringing-up phantasms and clones..working on placement/auto-attacking, etc.
When it’s time, getting into melee /finishing with dual swords/dodging out if necessary and switching to staff.

This build does not focus on shatters (although you can) or phantasms (though you summon them), but rather force you to get very familiar with your weapon skills and how best to use them at the right time (ie-when to block with sword, when to tele to target, etc.). Ok, here are the particulars:
Armor is Knights except for the feet and arms which are Val. Trinkets and back are Knights with rubies. You’ll need the toughness for the in-your-face gameplay.
Weps are all Val. You’ll like the HP buffer for condition-heavy Orr.
Runes are 4xDivinity plus 2xMelandru .

Sigil of undead + sigil of stamina for the swords and sigil of generosity for the staff. The undead slaying sigil is a huge 10% boost and the stamina sigil refills the endurance bar on a kill (especially key for this dodge-heavy build). Generosity sigil is another anti-condition tool for Orr.

Food is Lemongrass poultry for the condition reduction… paired with the runes = 50% reduction in condition duration. Any more is a waste (IMHO) and any less is (to me) bothersome, given our lack of built-in/don’t have to think about it cond. removal. This makes all those annoying red shields kinda like little farts that smell, but only for a couple seconds….big deal right? Superior Sharpening Stones are used for more POWA!

A big part of this build’s success lies in the ability to dodge a lot/leave clones/overwrite clones, and let mobs kill clones for random cond. plus cripple. I didn’t take the “causes confusion on clone death” trait because the build’s PVE oriented.
The big weirdo thing about this build is not taking the 5 points in illusions in favor of picking-up another trait in Inspiration: Compounding Celerity. Believe it or not, this is critical to making this build viable. Why?…because it grants me a snowballing speed increase based on the number of illusions I have out. This means I have a speed bonus in combat, when I need it most (as opposed to running around the map….when I want speed ‘cause I’m impatient). You can only get the speed increase if your’e moving forward or, more importantly, strafing/moving forward. I don’t know about you, but I do this ALOT. Is the speed increase big? Well, not really big….is it noticeable?…YES! And that’s what counts. Because I’m always running forward, dodging and circling a target, this speed increase is very helpful…all of a sudden I don’t feel clunky and I can really focus on positioning attacks, placing dodge clones etc. Oh, and I don’t even notice the difference without having the 5 points in Illusions. With weapon cooldown reductions traited, I pretty much never look down at my bar and wish my abilities would come off cooldown.

Relevant numbers located in pictures (food and stones included) . Feel free to PM me with any questions or helpful suggestions.

Curunen.8729:

Agreed with swapping emeralds for rubies.
Then, depending on your crit chance you could swap in some cavalier trinkets.

My current build is quite similar in the traits, with x/20/20/5/5 as a base, as well as S/S + staff.

I would consider putting the 10 points in domination, only because you have can have the option of crippling dissipation or 15% illusion damage, without needing to respec. Crippling dissipation is a very useful trait.

I did, in fact, take the points in Dom. for Cripples. 10/20/20/20/0.
Why not 15 in Inspiration and 5 in Illusions? I’ll reveal my madness soon enough..moohahahaha.

This is for PVE…so far. I’d like to dabble in the PVP areas as I improve. I decided on a more melee/clone suicide focused build that is turning out to be loads of fun so far. It’s pretty similar to what others have posted on gw2guru, but I’ll post it as soon as I’m able.
I’ll try switching the emeralds out for rubies and see if I can still not hit the floor.

Ok, so basically I’ve the choice between a crit/clone suicide build for more dodge-heavy personal offensive play or a phantasm boosting/vit build for a more pet-centric defensive style. I’ll try the more offensive build first and adjust accordingly. Thanks Bobross.

After allocating points to what I consider mandatory traits for my playstyle, I have 10 points to spend and I’m not sure if I should put them in Dom. for the plus %15 illusion dmg or continue in Dueling for phantasmal fury. Here’s the build : http://tinyurl.com/oc2jfm2
Thanks for your time.

Just wanna say I think your builds are spot-on and your commentary vid was the best Mes. vid. I’v seen yet…grats and I look forward to your next one!

Spideroll…..mmm sushi!

But debilitating dissipation + clone on dodge = so much fun with the staff though. I can kite large numbers of mobs, keep overwriting clones and birthing phantasms for much chaos and death. Plus I’m Asura with 2 superswords…very Yoda looking when I’m flippin’ all round. It’s a good feeling when I’m online during off-hours and can solo a risen event, dragging all those undead around, pulling them into exploding clones! To each his own, but I think this style of gameplay is addictive fun. Thanks again for your help Embol.

More great information as well as more arguments both for and against taking the trait. I’ll just have to try both builds and see which I prefer long-term. Thanks again for all the replies.

“Flintbrow:
Why do you take debilitating dissipation?”

Explosions, I kite away from them. And phantasmal fury is canceled-out by Vengeful images or vice versa correct? So, if you want to go into Insp., picking up
Phantasmal fury would be wasted, no?

Ok, this seems to be it: http://tinyurl.com/clctug7 . I’ll give it a spin..thanks for your help, I feel much better informed.

Esplen, ok I wasn’t aware that empowered illusions and phantasmal strength stack. A 30% dmg increase by phantasms may just be worth loosing the staff cooldown trait. Thank you for taking the time to post, I really do appreciate the help.

fadeaway.2807:

In your first build… why do you pick 10 in domination for +100 power and +15% phantasm damage when you could put it in inspiration for +100 vitality, +15% phantasm damage AND a major trait of your choice?

Illusionary elasticity is not so useful because your staff attack is going to be a small fraction of your damage. I’d take those points out of your second build and find somewhere else for them.

Is there a reason you don’t want to use focus for pve? It’s very good, especially with the reflect trait.

I’m not sure how moving 10 points from Dom to Insp would give 15% more damage to phantasms…am I missing something? Unless you mean dropping Dom and all but 5 points in Illusions to make this: http://tinyurl.com/cbvzave . All that extra vit. would fit into the tanky build as it stands now. I’m not a big fan of the focus personally and I’ll admit to being a bit lazy and using the rather frequent speed buff from signet of Insp. to help get around.

No staff users have an opinion on which would be more beneficial?

I’d appreciate a moment of your time to help me choose between two PVE builds using staff + s/s.
Armor is knights/emeralds + divinity runes (I know many staff users use cond. dmg gear, but this is what I have now and need to work with) My playstyle is to stay in mid-range with the staff and close with s/s for burst while focusing on clone placement/production/overwriting and letting enemies get kited into detonating clones. This seems to work well without cond. dmg….as far as I can tell, not owning any of that gear. I guess my question boils down to “how important is Illusionary Elasticity vs the synergy between Phantasmal Healing + Metaphysical Rejuvenation + Illusionary Membrane”. Here are the two builds:
http://tinyurl.com/ayoz46w

http://tinyurl.com/ba8jnae

New asura mesmer looking for build advice if anybody can help. My goal is to focus on keeping illusions out and strong and not shattering. My fav weps are sword/sword+staff and my main interest is PVE. This is what I’m running with: http://tinyurl.com/c3e9shc and while I do ok, I’m not sure if my traits are set-up to be optimal for the play style mentioned above. Thanks for any and all help.

Hi, new Asura mesmer here. As I level, I read the forums every day…learning all I can from you guys (very helpful/friendly people here especially). I’m interested in a S/S +
Staff build and came up with this: http://tinyurl.com/csdbv4s . I’m also thinking about doing a mix of Knights and Zerker armor/trinkets with 3 undead runes+ 3 divinity runes….the idea being to create a fairly balanced build featuring decent crit chance and dmg, little extra toughness and a small boost to condition dmg.
Whadya think?

[/quote]

I will likely make a thread later tonight detailing my build in its entirety. I’ve had a lot of people ask me about it.

PM me in game later if I forget lol.[/quote]

Oh, please do….and thank you for your time.