Guild Wars 2

kodesh.2851:

Ross Biddle.2367:

phokus.8934:

It’s the basics of knowing when to dodge, using the terrain to your advantage, knowing when to use Decoy, when to heal, when to Shatter for Distortion, using About Face and Phase Retreat, etc.

Admittingly, I used to use Mantra and/or Null Field but after ditching those and using Portal, I’ve learned to use more of the map rather than relying on utilities.

I just get more out of Portal for repositioning than I’d ever get with mantra or null field.

Right so survival/disengage continues without portal.

I get taking portal for a variety of reasons, but as a disengage mechanic seems unnecessary. It might be practical (arguably as practical of a disengage as it gets) but still unnecessary.

I agree, portal is fun and can make for some interesting plays, but not really necessary.

Most underrated utility? Phantasmal Disenchanter.

I think portal is one of our greatest tools in the right team, but 1+ to iDisenchanter being underrated. He offers SO much with simply one attack, let alone if he survives to get off another.

Curunen.8729:

lol, I was just messing around in some hotjoin with the grenth rune setup and I get called “pu mes” by a thief.

Have been called “pu mes” by others as well…

Just goes to show how people still whining about mesmers have no clue what our traits actually do.

I get called PU whenever I play any condition Mesmer EXCEPT Pu. Whether that’s condi shatter, CI condi, or signet clone death. People are ridiculously ignorant.

Zerker shatter >>> cele shatter. You’re right, the might stacking isn’t reliable, which just makes cele shatter very watered down.

Cele condi shatter is strong. The only trouble I have is stereotypical Mesmer issues like decap turret engis.

I love love love Null Field. #GlamourEnthusiast

But yes, I do understand using portal to escape sticky situations. Sometimes, I’ll decap far point; wait for the 2v1; stall long enough so that other fights are +1; then portal away to help finish off the fight at mid.

^

I was talking with some OMFG guildies the other night who told me wvw roaming battles are typically more spread out, so DD definitely isn’t necessary. Good job taking the Manipulations CD and also the distance. That’ll help you blink to catch up to people or potentially escape.

Looks really good to me!

Calliope.8675:

Cho’s outfit on a female.

LOL This is great.

How about bumping this thread instead? There’s some discussion here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Bountiful-Disillus-How-to-make-it-appealing/first#post4542700

Thanks for the info!

Well since I’m here, I’ll just post the different Cele Maim builds I use. When pugging it’s really important to be flexible with your build, because you never know what team comp you’re going to have. And also keep in mind the enemy team comp. Anyway, here are the three versions I switch between:

Dominator
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAraWlknpRtlqxQNcrNSpBh6ykmmSyA8gSeiyB-TZhGwAF3fAwJAowhAYwTAQZZAA
Arguably the best build for putting AOE pressure on the enemy team. It’s my favorite to play. The long lasting conditions slowly eat away your enemies while providing a soft lockdown. This is its most offensive version. This literally wrecks Cele Eles. Vuln sigil on your Scepter is critical for keeping enough cover condis on enemies. Staff auto attack does a good enough job on its own in this regard.

Defender
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArdWlknpRtlqxQNcrNCuBZyJ0AU/jhcySGgfB-TJRHwAFOFAA3fAwTA4YZAA
If no one is willing to be the home defender, someone has to take the job, and this version of Maim does it really well. With BI, you keep boons on you all the time, not including your access to 2-3 Chaos Armours while on Staff. Really decent at 1v2. I’ve seen some people turn this into a might-stacking build, but I think 4/4/0/0/6 is just as offensive and easier to play.

Supporter
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArfWlknpRtlqxQNcrNCuBdyUMCU/jhcySGgfB-TZhGwAF3fAwJAowhAYwTAQZZAA
Sometimes you already have a home defender and enough condition/zerk on your so you go for this role of support instead. You focus on giving your allies Chaos Armour with your blast finisher. Glamour Mastery & Vigorous Revelation are also very underrated traits that help keep your team healthy and alive. I’ve also found that [if by the grace of Lyssa] iMage’s attack connects in conjunction with Confusing Images that the confusion burst DESTROYS enemies. It’s funny to watch! #rekt

I don’t know what utilities you guys are running on your Maim builds, but with Cele, you DON’T need two stun breaks (decoy/blink). I think Decoy is more than sufficient especially on the lower CD.

In both my 4/4/0/0/6 build (the domination trait line has GREAT synergy with a maim hybrid build) and the more support/sustain 0/4/0/4/6 version, I run Decoy+NullField+iDisenchanter/Port (unranked/ranked).

Cele Ele/Engi who?????

Power builds typically don’t have a lot of sustain. Learn how to dodge. LOL

But seriously, the best way to add some sustainability to your builds is by taking away some dps in your traits. Two ways I do this in my builds:

• Taking Manipulation CD instead of Debilitating Dissipation & Far-Reaching Manipulations instead of Phantasmal Fury. This allows for further range on your blink. I typically also take Arcane Thievery as my condi clear. If you’re running pack runes, you typically have a high enough crit for your phantasms anyway.
• Going into Inspiration lines for Mender’s purity. The extra condi clear and strengthened Ether Feast does make a difference.

I’ve also been playing a dps phantasm build that has a lot of sustain due to the Signet heal. It does excellently in unranked play. You can actually beat thieves with it if you get your phantasms out. Check it out here:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsaRnsISjaWqGeoB3aGJ1QO9xnRJ5gAl8TIA-TZBFABCcEAqZ/BqLD02DAAgDBAA

alanis.6094:

10s Stability on a 30s CD, prior to (or even with) boon duration, is silly OP.

You mean 36seconds if S. Inspiration is traited. 45 without.

Omg Ross that simple change of giving Mesmer stability would make it ten times better!

Oh wow that’s so cool! The more you know!

Thanks for this positive and helpful post!

Making Portal more user friendly would be very nice. 1+ to that post!

For an Adept trait, that would have to have a hefty internal cooldown, which I hate for interrupt traits… I just want the icd on Power Block erased.

Mesmer is only OP against bad careless players and also players who panic easily.

Xyonon.3987:

Lyss & Ilya only exist because of the traited and untraited iDuellist.

I’d finally like to see a fan for my mes – like the splash art. Shield would be cool too. MH Pistol, ok.

What do you mean about traited vs non-traited iDuelist?

A fan would be great! It reminds me of something similar to what the focus is, but I want it to be a pretty phantasm!

SobeSoul.6910:

MailMail.6534:

+1 for the OP.

<3 <3 <3

Let the haters hate, and we’ll keep playing. I get the same hate whenever I play condition Mesmer which is actually subpar for pvp. Ironically, most players call it PU even though I play other condition builds. l2p

I actually giggle when people play condition mesmer on my ele since it really is not effective at all against the amount of condi removal. On my engie the worst that a condition mesmer can do is usually make me withdrawal from the point to somewhere else unless the condition mesmer +1’s a fight.

Exactly, so why do people complain so much about condition Mesmers? They’re fun to play, but aren’t the most effective.

+1 for the OP.

<3 <3 <3

Let the haters hate, and we’ll keep playing. I get the same hate whenever I play condition Mesmer which is actually subpar for pvp. Ironically, most players call it PU even though I play other condition builds. l2p

Well if you’re not playing top tier, then I see nothing wrong with using a condition build. There is more than just PU you know… You can hold your own against most classes, and you can definitely destroy thieves when on condition Mesmer.

It simply means you have to play a different playstyle and won’t be bursting as much. It also gives you room for support type utilities like Null Field.

adelaide.6213:

I don’t believe sigil of impact affects phantasms. You don’t see any mesmers run sigil of force in any build for the same reason.

I think you’re right.

I use stun increase sigils when using pistol and signet of domination. It’s funny watching people chain stunned for ~6s. It almost guarantees a kill if you have a zerker on your target.

Looks nice. My immediate suggestion is to take off sigil of impact as it will be hard to time a stun with iWarlock/iSwordman, which are the only two attacks this build would greatly benefit from. Sigil of paralyzation would make all your stuns 1.3 seconds. Or you might just want to use fire/air/generosity/doom instead. If you’re shattering a moderate amount (which it looks like you are from shattered concentration), then keep the energy. If not, I’d go with one of the above sigils or even battle.

If you took Pistol, that would be different as it’s a 2s stun and potentially stuns on its second bounce. Off-hand sword really shines with CI though, especially with stunning interrupting enemy rezzes.

Looks like a great build!!

+1 for why you don’t need DE in this type of build.

My general rule in phantasm builds is to avoid DE in exchange for your actual weapon CDs. I’d rather go 3 in Illusions than take DE in a phantasm build.

Also, I’m noticing that sometimes when people make suggestions on how to improve a build, they completely scrap its original intent. Alterations are meant to enhance, not change. This is an exaggeration on my part, but it’s almost like everyone is asking Ross to switch this build to 4/4/0/0/6 dps shatter. lol

I will have to respectfully disagree with you there. With Anets snail pace at correcting issues, I think this is low priority. Changing the way new players are introduced to pvp is a starting point. Not making a boss invul until 350…. If that’s the case, the boss might as well not even be there.

Not to be shady, but what exactly is the point of your post? Are you suggesting that these elements be taken out of pvp?

Bosses are the least concern of making the game more “noob friendly”…

The ONLY new weapon Mesmer needs is main-hand pistol.

That would make both Lyss & Ilya actually worth having if that became a reality…

Yeah, maintaining a custom arena isn’t that expensive as long as guild members help chip in every once in a while. Alternatively, my guild used to do gold lotteries in which the winner would receive 75% of the pot and the other 25% would go towards the custom arena. It worked very well, especially when richer guild members threw in extra prizes.

Good luck. I understand how hard pvp can be for newer players. I welcome them to the community!

Just to clarify, I did these based on yolo q with PUGs. If I’m on a team of players I trust, I know that any class they play can be effective in team arena.

Mathematically, zerker deals more dmg over time with an added bonus of health. I think thief is the only profession that would probably have a case to use it in some niche cases.

A buff is probably needed.

I checked you video out. A lot of neat information on your youtube channel in general. I’ll keep an eye out for you. Thanks a lot.

Calypso.2578:

Lel. People hate mesmers. ;-;

yet, people have cried over how OP they are more often than not since launch. lol

It’s been a while since I read through this thread, but I’ve been playing a subpar version of Lockdown. Here it is: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsdWlknpGtlpxNNcrNCuxY6MaIkTGzJlMgfB-TZBFwACeCA12fIxJAoaZAAHCAA

Yes, I’m fully aware that this isn’t the best lockdown build ever, but I’ve been enjoying the use of Arcane Thievery a lot, and the CD on focus is very nice. lol I guess when I look at it, this is a good build for 1v1s, but that’s about it really. I’m decent with this weapon set, so I’ll chalk my success in ranked yolo q to playing baddies.

So if you’re in some koth arenas, try this out!

I hate that this thread is so inherently negative, but I’m going to bite anyway…

1. Rangers

• They tend to stay back and away from the fight when sometimes they need to actually you know, help with stomps and rezzes…
• They almost never cap home even though it’s their “traditional” role in a sense (maybe I’m still stuck in the Spirit Ranger days?).
• Sorry, but the skill level of most Rangers I see just seem to be very very low.

2. Thief

• They don’t know how to play their class’ strengths. There is a HUUUUUUUUUUUGE difference between a good thief and a bad thief. A good thief is a game changer and imo one of the best classes, but in my experience most thieves are bad.
• Far Heroes. See above post.
• Unnecessarily arrogant when most thieves are bad.

3. Mesmer

• I hate to say this considering I’ve exclusively played Mesmer forever now, but a lot of Mesmers play weird builds. I’m guilty of this too sometimes. They’re not always effective for team play.
• Since I play Mesmer exclusively, it means if I see another Mesmer on my team, we are typically handicapped unless we are playing baddies (which is where the Mesmer class shines bright like a diamond).

4. Warrior

• Whiniest players I’ve seen in-game during matches. And I thought us Mesmers were bad!!
• They seem to not know how to rotate at all. They love going into uneven matches. I think they often forget that their stances don’t have 100% uptime…

Shout out to my engis and necros. They tend to be the players who understand the basic strategies for conquest most regularly.

Amir takes another hit
ship sunk

Daishi.6027:

Mesmer needs a buff not because everything else is OP none of us are QQing because other things are strong. Although we argue less risk, and rightfully so when you compare our tools. But because other than baddies who do not know how to fight us, we are objectively under powered to the point of “easily replaced” for the game type, and the meta that revolves around it.

+1

This is quite the paradox. So appropriate considering the theme of Mesmer.

Amir.1570:

Oh QQ please nerf conditions because I can’t evade spam while DPS’ing hard enough. Well guess what? That’s the counter to braindead evade spam classes like Mesmer. At least when a Thief is evading they’re not blind spamming or gaining protection from chaos armor or having their enemies dodges baited out by phantasms.

I’ve been playing Mesmer since launch, and I haven’t discovered this tactic yet. Teach me, please oh wise commentator of the Mesmer profession.

I’m much too afraid to try Assassins, so I went with zerker, and it did pretty well in unranked/ranked. It can handle on point fighting a lot better than dps shatter when you factor in the frequent blocks. It deals a ton of single target dmg omg! There was even a time where I went down with phantasms up, and they downed a necro and I won the down fight. lolzy lolz he was salty as kitten.

Easy to get overwhelmed. Had an issue with eles and engis though (especially condis; how do you non condi removal peeps do it?!) so I swapped blink out for NullField which did the trick somewhat and fits my person playstyle…also had issues with guardians without support from teammates. I think null field (or even Arcane) is crucial for stability ripping.

Overall, I like the play style, but I take back my previous assertion that this would be more effective than the CS build I envision with scepter/pistol which is 6/4/0/0/4 and gives more Decoys, an insanely low CD on Sword 3/4/5 and Pistol 4. Here it is if you’re interested:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQRAsc7alknpGtNqxUNcrNiphgyyxJdgEDKZrTA-TJBFwACeCA12foaZAAnEAA

Great job on your build as always Ross!!

This is a great guide. Thanks for being a helpful member of this community.

Lexi takes another hit.

#ShipSunk

sigh

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

MailMail.6534:

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

MailMail.6534:

Yeah, I really loved my rework of the Disrupter’s Sustainment as it is kind of a mix of SC & RI, which are both severely underpowered. This would be the interrupt version of the new combined RI/SC.

Then guess what? That would leave room for a Glamour grand master trait!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 I’m such a glamour enthusiast; that would be a dream come true.

Why not have one for shattering and one for interrupting? You can have build diversity then :O

Yep, that’s what I mean. One gm would be my Disrupter’s Sustainment. The other would be the combined shatter version that heals and clears condis. And the last would be a glamour! <3 Now that would give build diversity to support Mesmers, and actually make going 6 into Inspiration enticing!

I would probably try the new inspiration tree with those changes. I think the third gm trait should involve phantasms honestly and we would have a complete traitline.

Same!! Come on Anet. If Zerker Mesmer is going to be pushed out of the meta, at least give some life to support Mesmers.

Now let’s stay on topic. Any other cool changes for this lacking grandmaster trait? Disrupter’s Sustainment has a lot of potential. It was just executed poorly.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

MailMail.6534:

Yeah, I really loved my rework of the Disrupter’s Sustainment as it is kind of a mix of SC & RI, which are both severely underpowered. This would be the interrupt version of the new combined RI/SC.

Then guess what? That would leave room for a Glamour grand master trait!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 I’m such a glamour enthusiast; that would be a dream come true.

Why not have one for shattering and one for interrupting? You can have build diversity then :O

Yep, that’s what I mean. One gm would be my Disrupter’s Sustainment. The other would be the combined shatter version that heals and clears condis. And the last would be a glamour! <3 Now that would give build diversity to support Mesmers, and actually make going 6 into Inspiration enticing!

edit: I could see the builds now!!
Restorative Illusions 0/4/0/6/4 Zerker with some supportive capabilities
Glamorous Recovery 4/0/0/6/4 Condition Support
Disupter’s Sustainment 0/2/6/6/0 Interrupt Tank

My mouth is watering.

Just from my first look, I’m very impressed. I used to run a similar build called Dazzling blades that used sword/sword+GS, but this looks like it would be more effective than mine with the pistol.

Your video is amazing. I loved watching you slash away at the downed thief in shadow refuge.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

MailMail.6534:

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

MailMail.6534:

Since these are supposed to be small changes, here’s some suggestions:

• Change Furious Interruption to steal a single boon on interrupt with no ICD. Stealing a boon seems more in line with the idea of an interrupt being “furious”. I could see some nice synergy with lockdown builds. Quickness is pretty useless.

This gave me an idea.

FI: Steal x boons (All boons I wish, probably 3 boons for balancing lol) when you interrupt a foe. Interrupts now go through stability. 15 sec cd. That would probably be a fairly decent interrupt GM trait

I think breaking through stability would be VERY nice, but 3 boons seems like way too much? It’s basically an Arcane Thievery every 15 seconds. I like it though. I could see Furious Interruption and Chaotic Interruption being paired together quite often!

Well the purpose would be to get off of needing shattered concentration in every pvp build. Perhaps a 20 sec cd or just ripping off 2 boons at a 15 sec cd. After all, thief steal rips off 2 boons every 20 seconds, but interrupting is slightly harder to do then just pressing 1 button. Do you think it should be per target as well?

I’ve changed my mind. I like your original idea of a Arcane Thievery every 15 seconds. LOL The argument could be made that Shattered Concentration is still stronger, because it’s AOE, so your rework of it would make it a strong single-target trait (which is where interrupt shines anyway) and worth taking.

Yeah, I really loved my rework of the Disrupter’s Sustainment as it is kind of a mix of SC & RI, which are both severely underpowered. This would be the interrupt version of the new combined RI/SC.

Then guess what? That would leave room for a Glamour grand master trait!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 I’m such a glamour enthusiast; that would be a dream come true.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

MailMail.6534:

Since these are supposed to be small changes, here’s some suggestions:

• Change Furious Interruption to steal a single boon on interrupt with no ICD. Stealing a boon seems more in line with the idea of an interrupt being “furious”. I could see some nice synergy with lockdown builds. Quickness is pretty useless.

This gave me an idea.

FI: Steal x boons (All boons I wish, probably 3 boons for balancing lol) when you interrupt a foe. Interrupts now go through stability. 15 sec cd. That would probably be a fairly decent interrupt GM trait

I think breaking through stability would be VERY nice, but 3 boons seems like way too much? It’s basically an Arcane Thievery every 15 seconds. I like it though. I could see Furious Interruption and Chaotic Interruption being paired together quite often!

Ross Biddle.2367:

MailMail.6534:

Bumping, because there are some fantastic ideas here.

If only we had a forum rep to take those ideas and represent them to the people who are paid to make good ideas happen!

HA!

Hopefully people are turning their applications in.

Since these are supposed to be small changes, here’s some suggestions:

• No ICD on Blinding Befuddlement. We don’t have enough blind applications to warrant such in the first place, so you wouldn’t have to worry about too many stacks.
• Exchange cripple in CI for Weakness. Being crippled doesn’t make sense when you’re immobilized. Weakness, Blind and Chill keeps in line with effecting your enemy’s regenerative traits and ability to attack.
• Make Mind Stab a blaster. All we have is the unreliably hard to coordinate torch 4. But maybe I’m asking for too much? I like the current Mind Stab.
• Increase stack of confusion and duration of retaliation on iMage. On the rare chance that its attack hits, it should be more supportive and damaging.
• Make it so that Power Block works on auto attacks. Yes, it’s still useless against an entire class, but at least it would be moderately viable against others. If that’s too much to ask for, then 6seconds of weakness in addition on interrupt would fit nicely with the theme. Or how about not having an ICD… sigh. So much potential in this gm…
• Change Furious Interruption to steal a single boon on interrupt with no ICD. Stealing a boon seems more in line with the idea of an interrupt being “furious”. I could see some nice synergy with lockdown builds. Quickness is pretty useless.

Bumping, because there are some fantastic ideas here.

Aaron.2413:

I am 52-0 (mike.4839) in rated team q — 51 points (dc once)
I am currently ranked 180th on the leaderboard.
You wanted this leaderboard to represent skill and effort. I have played 5 games a day and dominated every single one. Yet I am still behind people like Lexcicty who had 100+ points with about 120 wins and 160 loses…
At this point everyone is aware the leaderboards are basically time played. But why are people not being punished more for losing? You guys make it seem like effort is more important than results. Make losses automatic -1 for everyone for starters. And add MMR to the leaderboards. Currently you can win half your games in the lowest MMR bracket and still be rank one….
I don’t understand how these leaderboards represent anything other than who has absolutely nothing to do this winter break…

I don’t appreciate you firing shots at my friend, Lexi. lol But yeah, I get what you’re saying.

LOL just had a team that sent 2 to far and DIDN’T cap it. I along with a guardian kept up the mid fight against an ele/engi for like way too long without reinforcements. We ended up losing mid and home, because those same losers went back far…just to lose it again.

The insanity.