Guild Wars 2

Zerg eh… Take these things into consideration:
- survivability
- aoe
- boon removal (to kill stability)
- CC

Mesmer fails spectacularly at the first consideration and is definitely not optimal at the second. You will never get more tags than a Guardian or Necro because of those two things.

However, Null Field is possibly the best boon removal tool in the game. Also, if you take GS (push), Staff (daze), or Focus (cripple, pull) you’re reasonably good at CC.

Confusing Enchantments is fairly weak these days as an aoe option, but is possibly woth it if you focus solely on condition damage and confusion duration. In my opinion, GS is our best aoe option.

Mesmer is a great zerg assistant as most know. Glamour is pretty much the zerg skill line. Stealth is in included in that as well. Therefore, three useful traits are Glamour Mastery, Temporal Enchanter, and Prismatic Understanding. If you went with Confusing Enchantments as well you could go 20/0/30/20/0 and take GS + Sword/Torch. Then take Feedback, Decoy, and Nullfield as your base skills and switch to Portal and Veil as needed.

How about this build? It has five sources of glamour fields.

edit: nevermind… for some reason I was thinking Chaos Storm was effected by Confusing Enchantments…

Heinel.6548:

I’m going to test a new triple stab glamor build,

link?

Ah yes, while we’re at it let’s nerf Sharpened Edges and Rending Attacks. Heck, with your logic we may as well just delete necro from the game entirely.

Der Buck.5439:

then popping clones as I roll back

lols

kubetz.3058:

Now that was a really great explanation, Pyro! Thank you!

Pyroatheist.9031:

Therefor, taking carrion gear would be lowering your condition damage because of vit instead of toughness, vastly decreasing your endurance regeneration, vastly decreasing your bleed pressure, making your heals less effective, and reducing your power damage defense, while providing you with a tiny bit of power.

And aren’t there any builds that would make better use of carrion? I got carrion set a year ago because of some well-rated build (I don’t remember anymore, heh), but from your explanation it looks like rabid is better on mesmer pretty much all the time. Or did I miss something?

I fell victim to the same build a year ago likely. My carrion set gathers dust in my bank among the plethora of skins and black lion chest loot I’ll never use.

Toughness scales the effectiveness of your hitpoints from direct damage while vitality does not. Toughness also increases condition damage when you trait 25 in Chaos (moreso with Undead Runes). For mesmer condi builds that take the Sharper Images trait you want high Precision to trigger more bleeds from your illusions. It also helps you maintain vigor when traited.

Simply put, go with GS + Sword/Focus and dump trait points into dueling.

DavyMcB.1603:

This is what happens when lazy devs took ages to fix a bug. Cuz people start being skeptical whether it’s intended or not. Question is does this fix also happen to warior’s LB that devs said long time ago it’s suddenly intended to make the trait worth taking?

Anyway, you shouldn’t rely on 1 skill and there’s a few better ways to apply confusion than duelist IX + glamour.

Pretty much sums it up. If you leave this concern in the game for a year then the change that was made was simply a balance change rather than a bug. I assume the reason it was labeled in the “small projectile finisher” column was more to define what was planned rather than what was wrong.

Dismissing people who used this combo as exploiters or whiners is unecessary and inappropriate. It was nice while it lasted. Stacking bleeds with duelist may still be worth while, but taking pistol won’t be nearly as essential.

I tried swapping out pistol for Staff on my condi pvp build and ugh… I simply have no burst anymore. I’ll try GS I guess and mb give the whirl combo a go.

Ryan.8367:

20% chance on duelist now, finally

gg mesmers

no infinite vigor for rangers anymore either. So nice of you to stop by and grace us with your apparent lack of self confidence.

This change hurts, regardless of whether it’s considered a fix or a nerf. I guess the scepter buff offsets the change somewhat. Traited, we can now apply 5 stacks of torment every 8 seconds that lasts at least 8 seconds.

It definitely hurts the Sword/Pistol + Scepter/Torch builds… I’ll probably try replacing Sword/Pistol with something : /

4 seconds of reflection and block with the addition of returning the first projectile that hits you every 20 seconds when traited. Honestly, it’s one of our best skills that noone uses.

A ret build with pvt/soldier gear, and staff + scepter/sword might work alright with it. Then trait into manipulation and mantras to get as much defense and healing as possible. Perhaps go with 0/20(III,VI)/20(III,X)/20(IV,X)/0 with 10 points left for whatever and then with Mantra of Recovery, Defender, Mantra of Pain, and Mimic. No stunbreak or stability are the weakness of this build. Sigils of Bloodlust and Runes of the Guardian are also good options here.

I dueled a mesmer who focused pretty much his whole build on the duelist, glam combo. He dumped 25 in illusions, grabbed glam mastery, phantasmal fury, sharper images, duelist’s disicpline, and phantasmal haste. His weapons were Scepter/Pistol + Staff. This allowed him to setup two or more hasted duelists constantly with three fields to play in which resulted in a crazy amount of conditions. My build had duelists out as well… it sounded like a machine gun battle. The end result, he was able to more consistently push single target conditions which worked well for dueling.

Those 25 points in Illusions are a stretch for Phantasms builds. It may suite hybrid builds, but if you’re not going to be shattering much then those points are better spent in the Dueling tree. Your phantasms will benefit from the extra precision and crit dmg you get as well as the Sharper Images and possible Phantasmal Fury. Empowered Illusions is a must and the last place to dump points for a basic pve Phantasm build is Inspiration. If you don’t take the Focus then try glamour mastery to produce quicker ethereal fields for your phantasms to play in.

as Xavi said, zerker gear doesn’t mesh well with wuvwuv. As Nevhie said, go with GS as your main. I’d also suggest going Power over Condi due to the amount of cleansing and due to all the structures you can attack.

I use http://intothemists.com/guides/381-gs_prismatic with Null Field or Veil in place of Signet of Midnight. I also have a Sigil of Energy on the GS and the Sigil of Perception on the Sword now.

Nuka Cola.8520:

been saying this since game came out that gs/staff is extremely powerful for shatter or phantasms but some of you here need a person to play in mlg/being streamed to even consider the set. bunch of sheep following each other with sword/pistol/X on this forum.

ya… i’m sure you’ll persuade lots of people with that kind of accusatory tone.

what’s your build? Honestly, the only time you really need to push lots of single target damage is on a boss. Why not just carry a pistol around and swap when you arrive at the boss? PU + torch in almost every other situation in the game is what I prefer.

Traveler runes are uber expensive. I run a similar 20/20/30 build in wuvwuv and Rune of the Centaur along with Mirror heal works just fine. Along with some Chocolate Omnomberry Cream you will have 100% swiftness uptime. Perplexity are more worth while if you focus on interrupts.

roll a memser, go into a dueling arena, and then duel a mesmer. Until you’ve played as a mesmer and then played against a mesmer with the ability to see their build you’ll never remember how to fight one. Granted, once you’ve done that you’ll never go back to playing all those other classes.

While he won’t be able to use Runes of Perplexity in hotm, I suggest your friend try his builds out in spvp before investing lots of gold into them.

While I don’t often use pure shatter builds, I feel this one lacks focus and clone generation. Also, diversion is on a long CD and neither scepter or torch cause interrupts.

is it 30s CD?

this
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_of_Midnight
says it is 35.

I currently only use sig of midnight when i’m doing map exploration for longer swiftness buffs.

Consider that every mesmer weapon is range except the sword and even that isn’t designed for sustained melee.

That said, I nearly always have a sword in my build and I make an effort to melee in any setting. You can get away with this for a longer period if you try to have protection and aegis up as much as possible. Dodging and clone distractions are helpful to. Sometimes I will dodge through the enemy and then kite them the opposite way they are turning (like a thief) to avoid damage.

As for those two hotm NPC monsters, they hit very hard and take practice and a high damage build to take down effectively. You simply can’t allow them to knock you down and you need to protect your phantasms (with interrupts) from dying too quickly.

Sensotix.4106:

yeah that’s exactly how i see it..and of course i got owned in duels with my mantra build i just wanted to show you guys how strong it can be
i see it more like a challenge and i like challenges because most of the classes became faceroll in gw2

challenge or self inflicted handicap? Interesting vid though. It’s amazing how viable the GS is in pvp now. I am curious why you go GS 4,3,2 instead of GS 2,3,4 since GS 2 stacks 6 might giving your iZerker a nice buff.

ugh… im doing map completion towards a legendary as well… It’s sooo boring

Bacon.4918:

Started playing this build in WvW, easier to play than a stun warrior I must say and more effective. I was able to win duels right away, only necromancers give me some trouble but I could easily outmaneuver them so it isn’t much of an issue. Overall, I still feel this build is too strong (especially with perplexity runes) considering how easy it is to play.

perplexity runes are OP even without the mesmer, so that skews your perspective.

Please link some builds you are referring to. There are different types of PU condi that use different weapons and play styles.

Personally, I feel cripple is the most effective weapon verse my PU build. If I get crippled then they can wear me down at range and avoid DD blasts.

It’s a possibility for an interrupt build. The damage output is low though which usually means you need to go with zerker amulet. Doing so without much evasion or stealth makes you liability at midpoint.

UnknownFreak.2805:

From what I read, they will buff Condi cleanse and Stability mantra to be AoE.

Which I’m pretty sure is why this is being discussed again.

Nretep.2564:

But well, pDisenchanter, Portal and SignetOfInspiration are also. So you wanna redesign them as well ?

Pets and Signets are not unique to the mesmer whereas mantras are. That one of our defining skill sets is broken is a pretty big deal. What if necros had the same problem with the corruption skill set? Their class wouldn’t be nearly as unique.

I like the underlying idea of mantras, but it’s unplayable in pvp currently and is very much suboptimal in pve. I think the only quick fix for mantras is to make the recharge both automatic and uninterruptable (by opponents or us).

Get GS + Sword/Focus. Read what your skills do, use them, use dodge, and you should be fine.

Honestly, I was sold on mesmer when I saw how we levitate and spin glowy greatswords to attack. The mesmer class really steps out of the bounds of your normal rpg class. I suppose it might be related to a conjurer class and perhaps even harkens all the way back to the FF Red Mage class.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/26105-trinity-mechanics-vs-guild-wars-2-mechanics-long/

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:oZiEqpIJQiIJ:gw2101.gtm.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/healing-death/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Are the best answers I could find to the OP’s question.

Summed up one way, they removed “dedicated healers” since content requiring such a class causes a dependency of that class.

While I enjoyed playing healers in other games, in the end I felt like my healing class existed simply to enable other people to play the game. Therefore, making everyone share in the responsibility of survival makes sense to me and I think it’s a good move by ANet.

Thanks for all the replies so far.

Sovereign.1093:

The good old 0/0/30/30/10 build – AH is nice for commanding. Or 0/0/20/30/20 – so you can get that extra condition removal on the last line trait. 0/15/20/30/5 is fine as well if you want to have quick f1 to cast per things you tag.

Mix knights with cleric, and celestial (trinkets). But what is most important, for me as a commander is. Sigil of energy on your weapons (staff/mace and focus).

Just be that guy who’s eternal, but can’t kill anything – well your staff will tag everything; which counts.

What matters is the little less time you spend multitascing or worrying about your life, the better. And staff allows you to perma skill 1 and tag everyone else. And the mace and focus will ensure your longivity. Hands free to type or press your push to talk and shout your commands.

:3

I keep seeing these gear type mixes. Why not just go full PVT?

The survival playstyle with focus on things other than the game makes sense to me. That is why I opted to not go for a necro commander. Necro has too many ground targeting skills. I like the sigil of energy idea. I’ve seen it on several builds and I wasn’t sure at first.

I think I may hit spvp 8v8 and give some of these build themes a whirl before dropping coin.

Hmmm… WvW builds are a conundrum. I suggest starting with torch and Prismatic Understanding and going from there based on your playstyle. Also, going for a stealth build will reduce your vulnerability to conditions. Traiting the torch helps as well but isn’t absolutely necessary.

colesy.8490:

For the record, this isn’t me just creating a platform to judge everyone

in the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar…“it’s a trap!”

I’m going to try my hand at commanding on occasion when my guild needs it. I’m not new to WvW, but am new to commanding. If anyone has a good guardian commander build to share I’d appreciate it. I’m also looking for any general advice from seasoned guardian commanders.

I support my teammates by culling the opposition.

Seriously speaking, every class has ways to support and ways to dps. For mesmer, their support role is primarily in reflection and interrupts. I don’t put heals into that category for spvp because Resorative Mantras is a burst once your mantra recharge completes. This means that to be certain to heal our allies you would need to run into the middle of a fight while recharging your mantras… which is a bad idea. Put another way, play to your class’s strengths.

My current build uses Blood is Power, Corrupt Boon, Spectral Wall, and Flesh Golum. I open with BiP, CB, and then cycle my staff skills. This fear condi build seems to work great verse one opponent. However, when there are multiple opponents I struggle. I’m not talking 1v2 or 1v3 either. It could even be a 4v3 and all three opponents will primary me nearly every time forcing me to blow every survival skill I have in a matter of seconds. This makes it very hard to contest points. This is especially if ive one or two allies being super conservative while I get nuked.

Initially, I assumed spectral skills were designed for both pvp and fear builds. However, my first spectral build attempt was very very weak. Sigh… I’m tempted to just go with Wells since it dishes out blinds and protection. I might take Bloodthirst as well to throw some life steal into the mix. Rabid seems to work here as well with high toughness to enable high “effective” HP and the precision helps Vampiric Precision and Sigil of Blood. Hmm…..

I’m pretty new to necro pvp and necro in general. I’m level 80 just from mindlessly spamming staff in wvw, so I didn’t learn much. Now I’d like to understand the strengths and weakness for the class.

My first build focused on signets and marks with a secondary weapon set of axe and warhorn. This build worked surprisingly well. I think it was 30/20/20/0/0. Now I want to develop a good fear build, because fear is sooooo annoying and so useful.

I think I’m currently running staff + axe/focus with a 20/20/10/0/20 build taking fear, staff, and corruption traits. I also took the fear wall thingy, bleed duration sigils, and rabid amulet. This build also focuses on boon stripping.

However, I’m not sure I’m using the best traits for necro playstyle. My main is mesmer which is very mobile and evasive. I’m not used to being hit so often like necros seem to be. Are fear builds any good? Are condi build any good? I saw a necro in spvp running a zerker, DS, wells, life siphon build with scepter/dagger + dagger/? and he did very well.

Each class needs a unique feel though. Mesmer is a magic wielding class that can dual-wield swords which the thief cannot. I’d rather they come out with new weapons like the halberd, whip, or, as others have mentioned, the fan.

You’re on the right track. Go Greatsword + Sword/Focus and you might also take the Phantasmal Defender Utility as well. Also, remember that even though we can use a sword that Mesmer is not a sturdy melee class. That said, combining Blurred Frenzy with a bit of dodging makes the Sword an excellent tool for burning down mobs quickly (typically after you’ve hit them with GS).

Everyone says, “things get easier at 40”… but why? I think it’s because you get access to Deceptive Evasion. This combines dodging with clone creation. NPCs will often go after your clones which allows you to avoid that damage. Until then, GS and Focus give you to crowd control, enabling you to maintain distance on your opponents.

almost makes one envy the warrior to have no pets you’re depending on for dps…

Traveler is 6.5g compared to 0.09g for Centaur. Base dps-wise I think 165 Power is better than half of Divinity. Also, +33% speed is a must for roaming in WvW where +25% is enough for PVE. If I did a lot of solo pve and I had money to burn then I would consider Traveler.

As it stands, Centaur runes are possibly the most valuable rune in wvw group play. Rune of Altruism might be second. Mesmer has the most need for Centaur runes, so we end up being the only one to take them. Yet, they provide a huge amount of value to the group. With my build, I provide 15 seconds of swiftness every 16.25 seconds. If I run Signet of Inspiration I can dish even more swiftness out.

I don’t think I could commit to a formal team, but I’m always up for some tpvp.

http://intothemists.com/guides/643-prismatic_clone_factory_20

Is very similar to your build and is my main tpvp build. Conditions are definitely the way to go with this. For sigils, I highly suggest Sigil of Energy for more clone spamming goodness.

skcamow.3527:

nyaonyao.8402:

skcamow.3527:

Ugh, you guys are right, daze isn’t a condition, it’s a control effect like stun and can only be cleared via a stun break or waiting. These are the effects which fall under that category:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Control_effect

Man, too early. I believe everything else I said is correct though.

Hmm, then does daze have any advantage over stun? When the player also has torment maybe? You know when they panic and don’t use a stun breaker and run away instead? XD

Yeah really the difference between the two is that dazed opponents can move – they just can’t use any skills (except stun breakers). Stunned opponents can’t move (complete lockdown). For NPC’s, a daze is pretty much identical to a stun since a daze will prevent them from moving.

As I mentioned before, when effected by Daze, attempts to use skills will be interrupted. When Stunned you are inhibited from even attempting a skill.

I was fighting Teq in overflow (get’n destroyed) during that BG takedown. Some of my guildies were in there for it though. The main force used our WvW BG TS, but I’m not sure who was commanding.

The damage is pretty extreme so taking Restorative Mantras, perhaps along with Null Field would definetly be useful. I would not trait for full support though since everyone needs to be doing damage as well. Teq targets people with large “wells”, so taking phantasms that move away from you (warden, swordsman, zerker) are probably best. He also sends out a cool looking tidal wave which I think stability helps with.

I will glance down on occasion to check on a specific CD. Typically it is iDuelist and occasionally I’ll check other key skills such as distortion. However, that only takes a fraction of my time and could be compared to checking my speedometer in my car. My keys are all bound near where my left hand sits on my keyboard and on my mouse so all key positioning is memorized. That said, I wouldn’t mind having the readiness of those spells be positioned within my normal field of view. This was something you could do with addons back in the WoW days…

Pyroatheist.9031:

Ah, I apologize. This isn’t a carbon copy of the blackwater build. It does in fact lack the condition burst that that build has.

heh…

Granted, anyone laying claim to any build is silly. Naming them is just for reference convenience.

From what I understand, all skills are interrupted while Daze is applied. Conversely, all skills are unavailable when Stun is applied. Hence, the only way to interrupt a player with Stun is to hit him with Stun in midcast.

Regarding Confounding Suggestions, Dazes are converted to Stuns on impact 50% of the time rather than Stun being added to Daze.

I presume iElasticity was not used? Also, what are you trying to gain from this investigation? Overall, burn is a rather low priority condi for us. If it is indeed a defect, (omg… speculation) then possibly it was caused by code churn from the recent bounce priority changes.

I’ve played rank tpvp recently and understand the level of play required. However, being in a casual tpvp guild can make it hard to find teammates sometimes so coordinating at the level you’re talking is typically not an option.

I want to like mantras and I’ve tested them thoroughly in spvp. The nearly 3 seconds if inactivity due to mantra charging kills any usefulness mantras provide. Taking three mantras and attempting to charge them during and even fight and winning is impossible. When you charge a mantra you are both not doing damage and are allowing yourself to be hit for nearly 3 seconds. Most tuned burst build can drop you in 5 seconds in pvp. As for the cleanse and stability updates, they’ll need to increase the stability duration to get my interest.

Jportell makes the only positive point about mantras and that’s the PU buff. You can kind of getaway with charging mantras while stealthed. Yet, doing so still forces you to be inactive which reduces your dps and lightens the pressure on your opponent.

The only thing that would make mantras viable in pvp would be for them to make you invulnerable while you charge them. Another option would be to make the recharge passive. Essentially, once you’ve used up your charges and the CD wears off, the mantra will passively recharge on its own and would not be interrupted by anything you do.