That shouldn’t work as the sigils have a shared 9s cooldown according to the wiki. Try it with the cheap versions first, just to check.
What about changes like these (not all at once, just some ideas):
Make the autoattack a projectile finisher: Roundabout way of adding confusion, adds more options for group play and expands upon a very limited arsenal (iDuelist and Sword/Staff leap basically, others exist but are neither spammable nor reliable). Something like standard 20% combined with a speed increase on hits 2+3 (i.e. not for clones) or 100% proc on hits 2+3 (so clones never proc it)
Switch Confusion and Torment: Make the block apply confusion as that’s more of a bursty control effect, what you would want on someone trying to kill you. Keep the slow channel on #3 but make it apply torment instead, possibly with a Cripple on the final hit. Make the beam continue to hit up to 1200 range as long as the wind-up and initial hit succeeded. Basically make it a tool to hurt fleeing opponents that heavily punishes them for failing to evade/interrupt.
Obviously the exact numbers (especially the durations on the conditions) would need some tweaking and shouldn’t just be carried over from the current layout.
And don’t forget you can chain Mass Invisibility with Decoy, The Prestige and even Desperate Decoy (cast Decoy at 25% HP trait), with each gaining an additional second of stealth duration. Plus now you can stand in a non-threatening AoE to get even more procs off Chaos Armor.
Still leveling my Mesmer, in the 50’s. But I’ve found that having lots of clones up and heavy conditions works for me.
I use a Staff/Sword+Focus.
Most of my gear is Condition Damage/Power/VitalityI like this because I tend to be by myself most of the time and I would often find myself in situations where I pulled more than I could handle. What I do now is intentionally pull 2-6 mobs and just keep moving and summoning clones. Use chaos armor, chaos storm, and blink when thing get tough. Use null field when against enemies that slow my movement down at all. What else is neat, is if I use a combo finisher leap (blink, phase retreat, Sword 3) out of an ethereal combo field (null field, chaos storm) then I get chaos armor for a few seconds.
What I don’t like about this is when I’m with a group during a dynamic event or something, I barely have time to do damage and won’t get credit for kills. I have to switch to GS or something to make sure I get credit for kills.
I’m not sure this build would fare well in PvP. I can’t back that up with any facts, it just seems like I would be killed before I was able to do anything significant.
Fun profession all in all though.
Sounds like the build I used. Try full Rabid gear with Runes of the Undead, enemies in PvE don’t use many conditions so you don’t need the vitality, and the precision scales very well with Sharper Images. Your damage against buildings will be even more pitifully abysmal, but in the long run the best option is a second armor set anyway (zerker or soldier and use sword+focus/pistol against structures)
But yeah, above all Staff is insanely fun to use! Even more so if you can keep it out most of the time (as opposed to the defensive swap most people use)
Mantra DPS builds? Sure you can go 30 dueling and load up on mantras, but you’ll have no team support whatsoever. The +damage traits sadly don’t work on illusions.
The main mantra “build” is 20+ Inspiration+Mantra of Pain for spamming AoE heals. Generally going 25+ and speccing for phantasms is the best bet, check Pyroatheist’s build for that.
Otherwise Mantras are situational utilities which can be very powerful in specific situations: Resolve is one of the heaviest self-cleanses we have, Concentration gets you through most jump hazards, Distraction is great for chewing at Defiant stacks (Mai Trin etc), Recovery iirc has the highest heal/second even without the traits and the shortest cooldown, ideal for “on heal” runes.
I play PvE.
Ran a 0/20/25/0/25 Staff condition build since I found the GS to be awfully boring (apart from the awesome autoattack animation) and Scepter sucked hard.
I’m now trying a 0/20/0/25/25 condition+support build using Scepter+Pistol/Focus (and Staff swap) because that can adapt to use most of our utility. So far iDuelist+Feedback seems to kill faster than Staff, and the only AoE capability I lost is the cooldown on Chaos Storm and Staff illusions for shatter fodder (neither build has any reliable AoE anyway).
Standard Utilities is Ether Feast-Feedback-Nullfield-Signet (Domination for open world, Inspiration for dungeons); swap in Mantras of Recovery+Pain when running Restorative Mantras. Occasionally Blink, Decoy, other Mantras. Must test utility phantasms one day.
I’ll probably try a power/hybrid phantasm+support spec once I can afford a second armor set, thinking of Pyroatheist’s 10/10/0/30/20 zerker build or 0/20/0/25/25 with celestial armor, zerker trinkets and altruism runes.
Has the patch changed anything significantly for this build? The Confusion nerf shouldn’t be that bad since this setup wasn’t built around Confusion alone, though it’s a big hit to WvW group control capability.
At least anyone running Signet of Domination is 90 CD up now.
And thanks for the guide, while not the fastest PvE mobgrinder this is insanely fun to play, as long as you’re not stuck in a wall anyway. At least I once glitched past the “shroom of death” in the Dreamdark Enclave.
New player, recently hit lvl80 with a staff mesmer, here are my general thoughts:
Solo 1v1 PvE is SLOW! As a Warrior you hit “2” and random mobs just die, I had to wait for 5-10s remaining cooldowns on my staff. Now at lvl80 at least the “flow” has improved, things live a little longer so you don’t notice the cooldowns as much.
You’ll have problems tagging things in mass events (painfully slow projectiles) and deal pitiful damage to objects/structures, though a GS power build suffers neither of these.
Veterans/Champions will murder you pre lvl30 or so (all the good traits require 20+ points), as will anything with reliable AoE. At lvl80 I can solo most open world enemies easily, the main exception so far being the Champion Krait in Sparkfly Fen.
I feel I have no reliable condition removal for dungeon speedruns, Null Field just isn’t enough for things like TA. Plenty of support and mobility though, and staying alive in a straight fight is pretty easy.
Phase Retreat is a blessing and a curse. It’s a spammable clone gen and teleport and works while rooted and often gives Chaos Armor, but it will also stick you in a wall in TA while your group dies to champions, unable to do anything but watch.
In general I love the possibilities and all the activity during fights, and I for one find it more satisfying to kill things by combining a dozen minor effects over hitting them with a really big sword. One personal problem: lag will get you killed. instantly. all. the. time.