Guild Wars 2

@Nearlight, Cheers, never thought the guide would grow as large as it did when I started it. Glad you liked it on your mesmer, it now have 5 valid and common used builds.

@Pantsforbirds, Ty for that input. I have run standard power setup with thiefs and its a pure joy idd. This is a vid from that:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KrWWc_kIvFg

I have not looked deep into the thief builds as im no expert in that area, I simply trust my thief colleges to do a good job on synergi their builds.

Im on Gandara.

/Osicat

Ty for the feedback Black Cat (a thief Cat !).

So far what we tryed to do when getting preasured, was to play the wounded victim vesus bigger teams. This often is something I do and get a tail of ppl to chase me while Idle ofetn rather uninterupted can gank the wounded or slow players not chasing.

This is what we try to dow hen I run thru the tunnel and get a few after me and Idle run long way around. It backfiered a little thu kitten ppl went after him and only 2 after me, but it ended well anyway as it separated the enemy group and let us gank the 3 behind.

Cheers again and ty for feedback.

/Osicat

Hi, Osicat from mesmer theorycrafting here.

First of all, I must say I love thiefs. They make the best roaming teammates and they playstyle and mobility let a good thief outplay ppl in a wery elegant way.

Alot of people roam together without accualy theorycraft the traits etc between the different classes. To be honest I been rather bad at do this aswell in the past. After several ppl who folow my guide in mesmer forums been asking for a team video I deccided to look deeper into synergy thu before pick my build.

Spent a whole lot of time to try maximice the synergy not only for the mesmer build but also for a roaming partner. Choice did fell on a thief due to your passive bonused gained from stealth reflect the bonuses we mesmers can get form stealth (boons every 1 sec, dps while stealthed from phantasms etc).

As I try maximice the dmg aswell as the survival of the 2 man team I deccided to stack vulnebility aswell as use cc and team stealth as much as possible. This give my teammate up to 25% extra burst dmg. Stuns also is important aswell as immobelice so Sword+Pistol was my second weapon set. This give my teammate ability to BS a cc,d target.

Last I asked the best thief I know to help me on the mission. Ty alot to Judge Idlescholar for the help and fantastic fun.

After a several testing runs this was the ressult. Enjoy some nice Thief and Mesmer teamplay.

/Osicat

Here comes Judge stealth teams battle video.

Ty alot [GuM] for fantasic fights this morning aswell

/Osicat

And here it comes.

I asked the best thief I know to help me on the mission. Ty alot to Judge Idlescholar for the help and fantastic fun.

After several testing runs this was the ressult. Enjoy some nice Thief and Mesmer teamplay.

/Osicat

Hi

Alot of people roam together without accualy theorycraft the traits etc between the different classes. To be honest I been rather bad at do this aswell in the past. After several ppl ask for ateam video I deccided to look deeper into synergy thu before pick my build.

Spent a whole lot of time to try maximice the synergy not only for the mesmer build but also for a roaming partner. Choice did fell on a thief due to their passive bonused gained from stealth (speed, healthregen, 100% crit, condi clearance etc) reflect the bonuses mesmer can get form stealth (boons every 1 sec, dps while stealthed from phantasms etc).

I then tested different builds. As I try maximice the dmg aswell as the survival of the 2 man team I had to use vulnebility on daze. This give me the ability to give my teammate up to 25% extra burst dmg. Stuuns also is important aswell as immobelice so Sword+Pistol was my second weapon set. This give my teammate ability to BS a cc,d target.

For give even more preasure on enemy team I use Doom to minimice healing on enemy team.

Last I asked the best thief I know to help me on the mission. Ty alot to Judge Idlescholar for the help and fantastic fun.

After several testing runs this was the ressult. Enjoy some nice Thief and Mesmer teamplay.

/Osicat

@Sarkonis, in pve, tests a GS with Sigil of strength for Heavy 3.0 in pve + battle on your 1 h sword.

@All

New Video incomming. Been working al week on roaming and find a good dual team setup. me and another Judge have left piles of dead in our tracks and now I think I got the perfect synergi for play with a 2 man stealth team in wvwvwv roaming. Its alot of vuln stacking going on, cc and controll and Insane dmg.

I sure you al love it.

/Osicat

Other e-sport:

-Here we go, player 1 support player 2 in lightning speed. The APM for player 2 just passed 250 and its unbelevebal how fast he attack.

-Blue team answer with fast defense och counter attack, good moment in extremly low time.

-Woooooch in 5 dashing attacks he finnish of 2 enemy players and score for the Read team. Hallleluja what a end of the game!!!!!!!!

GW 2 E-sport.

-Wooow what a game, player 1 defen the point and with 5 APM, without move hes feets he manage to defend the cap.

-20 seconds passed and even by repeted attacks from blue team player 1 in red havent moved, hes carpet of aoe hold the point.

-Wow now enemy team stack up on him, 3 players massive attack with their AI. Look how those pets and spirits tear the red player apart.

-Nice, now blue can park a aoe static player on the cap. Game go on. Must say im impressed with the dps the AI put out!!!

/Osicat

1 More game modes.
2 Drop silly esport vision and first focus on make the game fun.
3 Focus on balance the games pvp for the large playerbase rather than a few tournament players.

Tbh its getting silly with the e-sport vision. They cant force a game to work in this forum, they first have to make sure the game itself is accualy fun. Fun to play and fun to watch. Then mabye they can start make a sport of it. The large player base could not care less about the biggest goal a-net have atm, most ppl just want to logon andplay a fun game. They feel frustration something totaly ailen to them is messing up their game experience.

/Osicat

@Hexen, you feel you can burst down a condi necro or 0-30-30-10-0 bs condi clearing thief with that setup? I often feel that the only thing that win those fights for me is high preasure from crit procs in combo with other conditions. Nomatter how turned, a build without bleed on crit and crit do less dmg, same as a build with vitality och healing instead ofc survive a bit better. Question is, is the survival extra worth the trade of dmg?

I dont doubt the survival or the spec, just find its radicaly different from how i synergy and think. I must say im jelaous about the retaliation on phantasms thu.

/Osicat

@Pyro and Hexen, I trust your skill as theorycrafter and players, I just have wery hard to grasp the usage of healing as a tool for mesmers. I see the use in groupplay to have healing players, but with no “cirkle of healing” “guardian aoe heal” etc our constant aoe heal is bound to phantasm for spread regen who have a tendense to die in group fights.

As PU user I understand you get alot of personal regen and with healing stats this indeed scale wery good, so do mantra of heal even with its chunky mecanic (personal opinion). I just dont feel I miss healing as a tool. Also both defensive stats vitality and toughness, scale our dmg. Cant find any simmilar synergi from healing.

Not sure. Just hard for me to grasp, might be that I just cant stay still and hug the phantasms enough.

/Osicat

@Overlord, like Pyro say rabid is for condition spec survability, to invest in carryon is inn fact ont only a dmg loss, its a survability loss in my opinion. As a 20 dueling condition mesmer precision is one of your core dmg stats. Add that you also have condition dmg scaling on toughness from chaos.

Il use full rabid and perplexi in my latest setup, exact gear can be found in my guide. There is accended rabid gear who also have vitality if you feel you need to up this stat.

@Hexen, sorry to say I have no understanding what so ever why you want healing stats on a mesmer. The ways of neglect and avoid dmg is far better than our healing skills anyway. We are not ment to paladin and be a target anyway. In any group fight our target drop and mobility make our friends focused and we just better of make things dead and use our utility for support in my opinion. For group healing our group far better of with a ranger or guardian anyway.

/Osicat

@Deathcon, yes, before runes you have 2 hard dmg ways, bleeds and the cloud of others. Now you have 3 hard hitters. COnfusion, blleds and the cloud of others. I love it.

@Juno, tbh for spvp and wvwvw I dont find other condi player as hard oponents. Mainly cause its even for a condi EXTREMLY hard to focus you in al target drops, blocks and blinds. You blokc conditions juts as you block dd. Exeption is AOE condis, this is why you need to pay atention and range other players. If you have porblems stealth blink and bail.

For duels its another situation, here you cant bail, u exected to fights. for this I instead use mantra of condi clear in replacement of weil. Work wonders.

Only oponent I see as a big threat in the spec is good enginers. This players I just stealth and put phantasms on. Keep loong range al time and dodge the grab. In wvwvw I hit em when they fight other things, cheesy but it wor. They HATE confusion on them self so arcane thevery is good vs em.

/Osicat

@Woopwop, to be honest if you turly want hubrid setup the most effective is to go Shatter Cat Mist or Heavy, get a set of celestial armour and stack might. When stacks get high swap to staff and use bounce mecanic for fury.

Also if you look into Heavy 3.0 its played as a hybrid thru might stacks. regulary havd 100+ bleed ticks when might get to 20~ stacks.

Have a vid of one of my early hybrid tests, it was before celestial armour thu.

@Rinzler, I dont do it cause I dont like to invest into one trick to much. Its a AWSOME way to max dmg form duelist but it also put your mian dmg into one card. The current setup give a big number of equaly strong “tricks”.

/Osicat

Well, with close to perma protetcion, chaos armour 2k toughness 4 stelaths etc I say that of my builds Condition Cat 2.0 with undead runes must be one with best survival. If you want more dmg I recomend the condition runes thu.

Can roam a full evening without die once. If thing going kitten stealth blink and bail. Trait in extra range on blink if you want extra mobility + cd on staff for more blinks and chaos armours.

/Osicat.

@MarkusParkus, It pull their pants down and give them a spank if they stay you use s/p + Septer/torch. If you use staff + Septer/torch will most likely ressult in a draw versus a good one as its less bursty and they will panic stealth as soon they can.

A good thief thu will identefy the build you use and leg it as soon he se the 140 d bleed ticks, confusion stacks etc.

Interesting the build also melts p/p condition thiefs in my experience. Trick is same, get duelists up and image for retaliation and keep in stealth as mutch as posible. As soon he pop up hit septer beem as it folows him into stealth, if he hits use block for torment.

/Osicat

Its not a hour long, its several part and cut up with gameplay alot but here we go:

Tutorials:

*Shatter 1 movment *: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i9TPVp4BiQ
*Shatter 2 high dmg burst * : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aM_ZzlxcCk

Voice Ability tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUVzPr52rEo

Portal guide : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svvbTHeDcOE

Mobility : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IqzGCcbHko

Shatter Cat Heavy 3.0:

Condition Cat 2.0:

/Osicat

@Raghken, Depend on what you after in wvwv. If you looking for big 60 man guilds, organiced zerging and climb for nr1 rank in eu etc Gandara is not the place for you.

If you after a wery open and friendly community with a big number of 10-20 man roaming and gvg guilds Gandara is somethingf or you. We have a big number of guilds who al communicate with eachother and have in general fun. Often you see this guilds do “HIA *” in /s to eachother whne passing. Azuraball is frequently played in our spvp servers . We aof have 2 bigger 25+ guilds but we are a typical mid rank server whith more fouc on fun than on points.

/Osicat

@Sarconis, to get realy high might stacks in heavy you need to get some interupt landed, prefered with aoe. This is easier the more tarhet you fight. Also make sure you shatter regulary for more moght stacks. On top of this. as soon you start se high numbers, swap to staff, get 3 clones up and try stick close to a target. This will give more might and fury for a nice condi preasure ended with a fury + mulit might 4 source mindwrack.

@Santeria, As the meta transform so do the builds. This natural transformation have lead to condition and condition countering builds atm do better in solo /sma team situations. Phantasm hybdrid still a extremly strong build but I mostly use it in team or pve as it lack good defense versus conditions.

For portal its absolutly the most common used utility in wvwvw on my bar. Every group run I use it and always a viable skill. Switch utilitys for any build after playstyle and situation for best ressult.

For the “optimal” roaming build atm in wvwvw you need something who not only good in 1 vs 1 but also can as you say handle 1 vs 3 or escape 1 vs x. For this I recomend S C Heavy 3 . 0 with ist close to imunity to conditions, or the condition spec who … melt faces.

@Reaper, as this is a guide its ofc contain traits gear etc. To make it simple, instead of post them to everyone who ask I started the thread with a " guide" section. In this you find links to al my builds, including gear, traits etc. gl

/Osicat

Perplexy seem as a extremly strong burst and controll rune. It add a spoon of control and burst to the condition preasure. When I attack I get the 3 stack up earaly ofc. If i scan get by a pistol stun, chaos storm, daze etc can get the 5 stack up I know the enemy HAVE to clense or live with the stack for a looong time.

My base dmg is normal conditions, the confusion is juts to mess with ppl and make em play defensive.

For group fights its lovey, did GvG with em and still ahve pink colours in the corner of my eyes due to al fun with my focus.

/Osicat

Well for anyone i enemy servers. The core of Gandara have always been several mid/smal size roaming guilds and a few bigger. We regulary do GvG and every matchup we have a big number of guilds looking for fight in “non zerg” scale.

Think nomatter how points look we can have some good fights if any guild in enemy server is up for it.

/Osicat

This ismy latest guide update.

4 – The Non shatter Condition Cat.

First, My build run some rather similar setups to Natsus Dragneel (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/BUILD-The-Blackwater-Mesmer-WvW-Condition) and Seven mirrors early torch build. This is natural as many traits are rather needed. I have some differences thu and will explain why I run this version in the way I do.

A condition heavy spec capable of survive close to big numbers of enemy and infiltrate their controlled areas.Its also a EXTREMELY trolly spec and the frustration of your enemy’s reach new lvls the better you become.It’s effective in small groups and solo play but also in bigger teams of 10-15 man. As your clones don’t need to survive to do dmg Or help your team with cc you can go rather deep into the fight.

High pressure with sudden spikes of torment and burn make this spec capable of down most enemy’s. You will run into a few classes you can’t take down on your own,
condition clearing thief’s with good skill and some necros. But they can’t really kill you either.

2 versions is listed here. both for wvwv. Reason is that I use both on my runs. A simple weapon swap trade mobilitya nd defense for high dmg spikes and more cc. When teh enemy team is big I use the staff, if I only see smal groups around on my runs I trade for higher dmg.

New runes in the 2.0 version of the build and new sigils:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_Perplexity

To balance the dmg I now use might swap + condition stacking. This give high dmg output even after dropped undead runes high overall dmg.

Characteristics:

Use scepter in MH .
Use OH torch with trait for condition clearing and short cd.
Staff for defensive and offensive purposes.
Use Rune of Perplexity

Geared for passive defense but still with high dmg output

Gear and Build:
*
Roaming and group combat: http://tinyurl.com/Condition-Cat-2-0-Romaing

Low populated roaming (Aka early mornings) and dueling: http://tinyurl.com/Condition-cat-2-0-duel
*
Videos:

@Armagedon Ash. Dont have Earth listed in my guide links what I can see and if so it is a mistake. What i use ingame is “Battle” + “condition dmg stack” + Battle. And for Pistol setup its “Battle+ Condition dmg” + " Battle + 5% crit chance".

/Osicat

My latets vid use the runes. I only see good things form em, have not felt that enemy preasured me more with condis latley eather. Fought several necros and feel even if both they and I use the runes my preasure is harder.

/Osicat

@Sarkonic, I answer you later.

@All.

Update. New build video.

Condition Cat 2.0

/Osicat

@ArmageddonAsh. The weps ans sigils are listed. Just click the build/gear link.

/Osicat

Enjoy:

/Osicat

@All.

Build updated.

Condition cat 2.0 now have been poliched and updated for better dmg and flexibility. New vid will be out in time but I work ALOT atm and started work on a new ambulance station so not alot of free time. Ressult: might take a day or 2.

/Osicat

17200 with lemongrass + runes for 60% less condition preasure and 1650 toughness is my defensive sweetspot I usualy work around.

/Osicat

@Argos, Think this is the setup I used for just that vid. The build was still under heavy testing thu so some traits might been different but nothing major.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNArfWlwzKqHTTsGb9IipHBHyBckUUavWJF42FC-j0CBINCiUFgkIBKHqIasVTFRjVJL1qbY6YCRmbo2cDRzMGWKAIWDA-w

Latest update of the build will be ready on friday (I just work to much to fix it before)

@themenaceofseventhdimensiom, first, jeeees that a long name. Second, firends add me and we sort something out mate. npnp, I have a guild raid 2 night thu and on friday. mabye something midday friday alternative saturday. we sort something.

My ingame name is…. “Osicat”:)

/Osicat

They need to add some more game modes. Im sere alot of ppl in spvp understand the cap point hold ppint is best way to win, but its simply sutch booring gamemode that they simply ignore it and kill ppl as its more fun.

Capture the flag, team attack/defend, hostage, anything would be more fun than this setup. And that they try make a esport of a gamemode most ppl eather not understand or just find so boring they ignore, by pour money on it is just silly. What every (e) /sport who are sucessfull have in common is that they:

1 are fun to play/participate in

2 are fun to watch.

The current meta is neather.

/Osicat

This one also hacking… max number clone hack.

@Gurugeorge, The link is correct about the trait, sorry the text was forgotten wen update from 2.0-3.0 was taken place. The glamour fields part thu is correct for group play with I now enlighten in the guide.

Ty for point this out.

@Khoi, it ofc possible but then instead have a look at the shatter cat Mist 2.0. The heavys playstyle is based around passivly endure high preasure, if you play like I do in the vids and let ppl hit you and place condition on you without passive 60% condition remove you take alot more dmgand cc. Problem is that even with 1 condition remover mesmers have big gaps in our condition armour withc is extra obious in the current tpvp meta. With food and Holbreak this holes are alot smaller.

Backpeaces are thru fractals.

/Osicat

@Hazahampo, With current meta in wvwvw even the roaming teams strapped on more and more conditions last 4 weeks. I notice this when I run with my smal pack. As a ressult condition defense is more and more important as a roamer. Due to this I think for roaming Heavy 3.0 or Condition non shatter with staff is the optimal for you. Its opssible to use scepter/torch + sword/focus aswell if you feel you lack speed.

This is only mu opinion and recomendation, but both of the 2 listed spec is extremly durable solo/duo roaming builds with big potensial and room for improvment before you reach skill cap.

/Osicat

Just for the love of the kitten bring in some other modes than stand in a smal claustrophobic cirkle and not use mobility or some classes core abilitys to stay alive as it not cap the point.

If we had some more game modes, capture the flag, arena gvg, defend/rescue etc we would de totaly new build be viable and spvp would be alot more fun.

Atm the ultimate class in this game would be if you could transform to a oak, root yourself for 5 mins, endure tons of dmg dont deal any yourself but instead fear and bounce ppl away from a mini area around you.

Osicat

I atm play acctive in 3 builds. S C Heavy 3.0 for group 10~ runs. S C Non shatter condition build for solo/ duo roaning avd GvG, Phantasm Hybrid for instances.

/Osicat

Enjoy.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KrWWc_kIvFg

/Osicat

@Alissah, I run eather S C Heavy 3.0 or Non shatter Condition when I duo ram with a thief. this as I want a spec who not only do serious dmg and create a big amount of clones for split enemy oponents. I want a build who not leav me dead and is a liability for my partner.

In http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrWWc_kIvFg I run S C Heavy 2.0 but I working on duo vid on Non shatter Condition setup

/Osicat

Thief

/Osicat

@Cyyrix, The 3 might is stacked up with staff clones might and potensial other sources of might. Its also not only 5 bleed / tick on bleed. Its extra dmg to burn, torment and confusion. Its also a 105 power added to your direct dmg who ofc not a mianc source but when you land a condition burst with torch flame + scepter nr 3 + with some practice a torment + block proc it get rather effective.

Still ofc, the builds I reccomend is only what I personaly think is best, its guidelines and expeted to be changed after personal playstyle and preferenses.

/Osicat

@Blehh, The survival in the build is fantastic so no need for more dodges of that reason. Vigeour is up almost 100% in combat so energy regain is good anyway. The condition on clone death is good, but for the build its not a core ability. for some fights they not even apply as enemy mightbe out of range of the clone so I use it as a bonus and a preasure tool

The thing most condition builds need to work for in both playstyle and stats thu is burst, burst to down the enemy who is at 30% hp and start to play defensive. Here might help ALOT. after a while of fighting your ondition dmg get higher and higher and you can with a mix of dicet and non direct dmg burst somone down.

I value this burst more than I value more survival (witch I already ahve alot of) or more preasure.

/Osicat

I juts hope noone take offence but I always dance a little jigg before start killing if im in a spvp game and find a GS mesmer, same in wvwvw when romaing. Im kinda sure BS thefs do the same but stand back and wating for the right moment.

In short, GS do good dmg sure, but how god dmg do you do lying on the ground spectating.

/Osicat

Testing atm ALOT, and its extremly suprising ressult. I been melting faces al evening in a rate I not seen before. Might see a update to my guide on the condi setup in the comming days. I usualy want minimum 1 weeks testing before I update the guide thu.

/Osicat

Exactly. When I was in a hardcore raid guild in WoW The burning crusade and was working extremly hard for server firsts and top different dps charts on my rogue the mutilate setup was considered unviable due to the simple fact it did ~4,80% less dps than the combat setup. I also spent 2 weeks change my alliance to a fraction as to get the other fractions alligance gained me ~0,9-1,1% more dps.

IN this game the dps between players, spec etc dont matter. If you can do the instance noone care if its 10-20% less dps, what they care is if you geared and play good enought to not die.

In some ways I miss my raiding days, I liked max my efforts to try get a top ranking in dps on a certan boss on WOL, in other ways I dont miss it as it was extremly hard work just to get that perfect chart.

Osicat

1 With holbreak for Shatter Cat Heavy 3.0 and Dmg&Support 2.0
1 Rabid for Non shatter condition build
1 Berzerker & knight with Air runes. For Shatter Cat Mist 2.0, S C Phantasm Hybrid and Shatter Cat Orginal

Also 6 exotic sword with different sigils, 4 focuses 3 GS, 4 stakitten , 4 pistols, 1 torch 2 scepters.

Al Accended maxed.

/Osicat

fadeaway.2807:

Unfortunately our best condi removal (on shatter) is the GM trait on a line devoted almost entirely to Phantasm buffs… aka not shattering!
Talk about build synergy..

This is something I never understand eather. Why put a grandmaster focused on shattering in a tree where you first have to take 15% more dmg to phantasm and not to forget same tree where most phantasm madatory abilitys are found.

Its like hey had put the dmg buffs to phantasm as a GM in Illusion tree.

/Osicat

Yupp, this little cat have one

/Osicat

@All

Testing going on with runes for the condi setup. I be back with more info when I know what I think myself. Running out of experementing gold aswell so need to go and get some new. Mabye some farming brrr

Ty al for the donations aswell. Would be hard for me to keep this guide updated without the many ingame donations and ofc al the possetive and helpfull mails I get.

Sorry If I cant answer everyone in game aswell. Latley I had so many whispers and ingame mails my mailbox and chatt been cluttered and mailbox maxed out. Best way to ask a question etc is to ask in the guide. I asked arena net to give me a bigger forum mailbox but I dont think its possible with the current forum design.

/Osicat

@Hitsutai, Like ArmagedonAsh said, Shatter Cat Heavy 3.0 can easy do good dmg and without suffering take you thru the dungeons without be pulled by the others or die al the time. Change for a few more berzerker instead of chavaler/knight and you do even better in terms of dmg. Aslos bring a GS.

If this game like wow had DPS meters and you wanted to do higher dps then the shatter Cat Phantasm Hybrid 20-20-0-0-30 would do a little higher especialy if you bring a GS. Still its not a big difference when 3.0 start stack might.

Shatter Cat Mist 2.0 is juts more of a wvwvw roaming setup and focus on speed.

/Osicat

Well tbh, AT would be better if it didnt swap skills at al, juts was a non target demaning 3 condi clens with lower cd. Thb keep the cd like it is, if it only clenses my conditions and I didnt need a traget it would be better. as it is now you need to land it to clear your conditions as you say. well If I want the conditions away fast I dont care if I can land it on somone else, i just want to survive.

Just make the AT to drop 3 condis, IF you have a target it land em on it, if its dodged etc then it still should atleast clear your condis. I dont pick AT cause I want a offensive tool I pick it casue I want a clense.

/Osicat