Guild Wars 2

The mantra is really all you should need. The rest is just a matter of dodging the important condition skills. Don’t get grenades loaded on you vs engie, dodge the unload for p/d, pressure the necro hard.

If you’re doing mainly PvE, then you should absolutely go for the zerker amulet.

musu.9205:

people even made a guide for condition guard build .
After many heart broken (today another hit , supcutie is playing spirit ranger in TOL, not a surprise ), Lets relax and have some fun from our uselessness and powerful healing skills anyway .

Here’s your guide:

Don’t.

Something Sanderinoa forgot to elaborate on. Lupi targets everyone in the area with projectiles. This is why you should have 3 clones out, but this applies to other classes as well. Rangers can take a hyena for the extra pet and spirits, elementalists can pop elementals, necros can take minions, and everyone can use ogre pet whistles and elemental powders to increase the number of reflected projectiles.

Arewn.2368:

Pyroathiest.4168:

Arewn.2368:

The effect of blast finishers are significant because blasts are generally fairly long cd and low accessibility.

Mmmmmno.

Warrior
Earthshaker: 10 seconds.
Arcing arrow: 10 seconds.

Guardian
Mighty Blow: 5 seconds

Elementalist
Dragon’s Tooth: 6 seconds

Thief
Cluster Bomb: No cooldown, 3 initiative

Engineer
Engineer doesn’t have spammable blasts the same way that these others do, but they have just so many of them. Blasts on shield, blasts on every turret, blasts on kit skills, blasts on gadgets, engineers have insane blasting ability.

So all of these classes have either massive access to blast finishers, extremely low cooldown blast finishers, or both. Now lets look at the others.

Necromancer
Putrid explosion is really the only decent blast finisher they have, though putrid mark can be used as well. Overall, necros have pretty bad access to blast finishing.

Ranger
Ranger has no good low cooldown blast finishers, but the one (non-pet) finisher they have is pretty strong. Call of the wild is a blast finisher as well as an aoe fury/might/swiftness.

So while necros and rangers don’t have the insane access to blast finishers as the other classes do, they still retain on-demand blast finishers that can be effectively used.

Mesmer
The prestige: A skill with a long cooldown that blast finishes on a 3-4 second delay.

….ok. Not only does mesmer have no access to a spammable blast finisher like cluster bomb or mighty blow, they don’t even have access to a blast finisher that can blast in a reasonable amount of time. If you try to blast a water or something with the prestige, half the time it’ll be gone by the time the blast actually hits. Mesmer is the only class in the game without anything even approaching basic access to a blast finisher, end of story.

Giving us access to one is not going to be the end of the world, and saying that blast finishers are rare or on long cooldowns is probably one of the most absurdly wrong statements I’ve seen this week.

All is relative. Blast Finishers are next to non-existant compared to the availability of projectile finishers.

No, you’re wrong about that. All spammable projectile finishers are only a 20% chance, making them unreliable. 100% finisher skills are on comparable cooldowns to the blast finishers.

Selvyn.1043:

This is of course just my opinion, for me, condi-shatter is always going to be better then clone death PU. For you, evidently it is not :O

Well, there’s that question of ‘better’.

In a team fight, I’d rather have a clone-death PU build. They won’t die, and the aoe weakness/cripple is stronger than a bit of torment and vulnerability. A Maim build has a distinct chance of dying, due to the significantly lower defense.

For a point assaulter, I’d rather have a clone-death PU build. A Maim build won’t kill any good player significantly faster than a standard PU condition build, particularly since to hold a point the enemy is forced to eat all of the clone explosions. On top of that, a PU build can easily survive in a 2v1 situation if the defender calls for help, where a Maim build will either have to run or die.

So that’s pretty much it for tPvP. There’s no role or situation where I’d rather have a Maim build than a PU condie build on my team.

In WvW zerging, both builds suck.

In WvW roaming, I’d rather be on a PU condie build. WvW is notorious for producing outnumbered fights at the blink of an eye, and you need to be able to handle that capably without dying. Maim builds can’t do that, they sacrifice too much for the torment shatter.

So where and how exactly is a Maim build better?

Ross Biddle.2367:

Two ways to make money- spend a few hours of continuous play doing PvE content such as dungeons (not always reasonable, crazy as that sounds).

Many dungeons take 20-30 minutes in even a standard pug group. I’m not saying you should farm arah, I’m saying you should run something like cof 1/2, coe paths, maybe even ac paths, or ta up. These are fast runs that don’t have a lot of complications. I fully understand time constraints.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Better yet, get your tailoring up to 500 and craft your daily bolt of damask. You can sell it daily for a decent profit.

You need startup funds of around 50-60 gold in order to do this, iirc. Once you’ve gotten to 450 crafting for making damask, go for it, it’s an easy 1-2 gold per day.

@Jurica: The key to having gold is not spending it. There are very few things that really require you to spend gold. Gear is not one of them (other than runes/sigils). Use badges of honor, karma, or again run dungeons to get your gear without spending any money. Nowadays you can even do PvP for your gear. That’s the biggest reason you’ll run out of money.

Occasional expenses on new skins and stuff like that won’t bleed you dry, especially if you are running multiple dungeon paths a day. You said you do cof 1/2 ac 123 daily. That’s roughly 6 gold per day. Over the course of a week, you’ll make 56 gold with that. I know that I personally don’t spend anywhere near to 56 gold a week. Try and see where all that gold is going.

Selvyn.1043:

Pyroathiest.4168:

Underestimate? I won’t underestimate it, but when I see someone using it, I know there are a lot of strong counters. I’ll know to dodge the shatters. I’ll know to proc a block on the shatters. I might even just ignore the fact that you shatter at all and let my pDisenchanter remove the wimpy condition load it applies from me. There’s so many easy ways to counter it.

When you say things like that, it leads to people underestimating the trait, I didn’t necessarily mean you personally would be underestimating it, so I apologise for that

Anything can be countered, and the methods you state can be effective…

However,

Torment is not the only condition that is going to be applied, used in tandem with other tools the Mesmer has access to you would be loaded with more than torment. Yes pDisenchanter\other cleanses will help, but it is not difficult to reapply the conditions or adjust gameplay.

And in the meantime, all I have to do is keep an eye on your clones to make sure I am not near them when they die. Oh, yeah, clone on death gameplay is full of strong counters too, lets not forget that

Sure, you can try to stay away from the clones and whatnot. That’s a bit of a counter as well. However, if get near them, you can’t dodge or block the explosion. Ultimately, both of the builds have counters, so you look at how those counters work along with the rest of the build. It’s easier to avoid shatters than it is clone deaths, especially since you have no sword (no immob).

On top of that, even assuming that the counters for both builds work about the same, a clone death (PU) build is significantly more resilient, able to handle outnumbered fights better, and overall a stronger asset to any team.

I’ve used the exact build you’ve got there. I’ve used a variant of it with sword/torch and scepter/pistol to be more offensive in landing my shatters. I’ve spent a very large amount of time trying to get this trait to work, but it’s just worse than the alternatives, so I don’t use it anymore.

Some day when Anet buffs Maim so that a torment shatter actually has oomph, it’ll be worth using, and I’ll gladly use it. That’s not the case right now.

Blackdevil, I’m rather convinced that the singular thing you do in this game is WvW zerging, because that’s the singular part of this game where offhand sword is never used.

Offhand sword is a very strong choice in roaming phantasm builds, as well as in shatter builds for wvw. It’s likewise a good choice in PvP phantasm and shatter builds as well. On top of that, offhand sword is used somewhere between 100% and 100% of the time in PvE builds.

I honestly think you’re missing your mark massively here. Your time would be better spent making threads about skills that actually need it. Mind stab was a good one, the scepter auto or iMage would also be good. Offhand sword…not so much.

Money is easy to come by in this game. I don’t really see how people end up running out of it unless they’re constantly buying strength runes and stuff.

Basically, just do some dungeons as you level up, and you’ll have plenty of gold by the time you hit 80, that’s all you need.

Selvyn.1043:

Pyroathiest.4168:

Torment shatter is very fun to play though. I wish it were viable, but my opinion is that it is not, any build using that trait is inherently weak.

Please say this more (well, i did correct it for you a little bit, but still, say it all you like) the more people that underestimate this trait the better

Underestimate? I won’t underestimate it, but when I see someone using it, I know there are a lot of strong counters. I’ll know to dodge the shatters. I’ll know to proc a block on the shatters. I might even just ignore the fact that you shatter at all and let my pDisenchanter remove the wimpy condition load it applies from me. There’s so many easy ways to counter it.

The trouble with torment shatter is that it just doesn’t give you something worth shattering. Your clones are better spent proccing on death traits than the torment shatter. You’ll get more stacks of damaging conditions, you don’t have to waste 30 points into illusions, and clone death traits can’t be blocked and dodged like shatters can.

Show me any torment shatter build, and I’ll show you a build that does it better with clone death.

Torment shatter is very fun to play though. I wish it were viable, but the fact is that it is not, any build using that trait is inherently weak.

AlbertoUlkesh.4517:

Thanks, I’ll try them out!

@Pyro, I also checked out the links in your sig. Some very helpful stuff there

Glad to hear you find them helpful. Just don’t try using stuff from the ‘immortal mesmer’ guide. I just keep that link that out of nostalgia for when it was viable. Anet killed it almost a year ago.

Mystogan.4157:

Edit: if you care about winning NEVER go PU in pvp unless you are roaming… in which case you will have no mobility. gl

Which ofc is why I’m able to stay top 200 on the leaderboards playing almost exclusively PU.

At any rate OP, the build that would suit you is very similar to PU, with just a couple of minor adjustments.

I’d recommend 2/6/6/0/0, taking scepter/pistol and staff. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW7alknpMtFqxRNcrNSpxY6cOKGSFQpHp8TA-TJRHwAw2fIZZABXEAAPBAA

Basically, this would play exactly the same as a standard PU condition build with a couple of exceptions. You’ve got the increased pressure from your duelist crits to apply bleeds actively, as well as having confusion on all illusion deaths, allowing for more pressure.

Holy Devastation.8203:

In hotjoin when you are ranking up, you get 10 points for neutralizing a point and another 10 for capping it. There is always a point in multiple people standing on a point, one never knows if a team is going to win or lose due to the variety of players and built sets as you stated yourself. I’d hardly call it a blunder to make sure you get all the points you can.

Personal points don’t really mean anything in a match though. I understand the reason you did it. However, if you want to showcase skilled gameplay, that’s not going in the right direction.

Holy Devastation.8203:

In terms of difficulty playing with limited stats. Spvp is more challengeing than the easy mode that is wvw where people load full zerker gear with extra food buffs and 1 shot people. And when they are not doing that they zerg in mass.

People, and myself, are not making a comparison between hotjoin and WvW, we are making the (unstated but generally understood) comparison between hotjoin and tournament matches.

Holy Devastation.8203:

I do agree not many people care for spvp or more specifically hotjoin spvp because of these factors. There needs to be more people that do post videos of it for the side of the community that do like it.

It’s not that people don’t care for hotjoin sPvP, it’s that hotjoin play is inherently flawed if you’re trying to showcase skilled play. The reason I keep bringing up this ‘showcase skilled play’ point is that you’ve edited commentary into your video that leads the viewer to believe you’re attempting to play strategically, but hotjoin simply isn’t the place for this to occur.

Holy Devastation.8203:

Futhormore anyone can watch a gameclip and point out every flaw they believe they see, this video link was not posted for people to bash, its for those who do like them. So to each their own and I’ll post more polished videos later. I don’t believe in only posting vids where one never dies, like a certain few do to make them look better. Everyone dies eventually.

So what did you post this clip for? If you posted it to showcase skilled gameplay, then you’ve made a mistake by using hotjoin footage. I know you didn’t post it to showcase a new or unique build, it’s a standard PU power build as you said in your first post. If you had posted it to get feedback on your playing and strategy, then you should have both said so in your original post and not been hostile about the feedback you dd receive.

Edit: Nothing wrong with a PU build though, as long as it’s played properly.

Holy Devastation.8203:

Never stated it was my best game, just recorded a random game and tried my hand at video editing. Your trash talking is not needed here. If you think the video is so bad then post a better video yourself within a days time. If you can that is, rank is nothing more than countless hours spent in matches these days long as the game has been out.

I think the main issue is that you’ve taken examples of hotjoin. Hotjoin is….not worth showing. Too many poor players, too many people possibly learning new classes, trying new builds, etc. Winning in hotjoin doesn’t mean much.

Other than that, things like capturing a point with 2 people are pretty cut and dry blunders that don’t have any possible strategic explanation.

Arewn.2368:

The effect of blast finishers are significant because blasts are generally fairly long cd and low accessibility.

Mmmmmno.

Warrior
Earthshaker: 10 seconds.
Arcing arrow: 10 seconds.

Guardian
Mighty Blow: 5 seconds

Elementalist
Dragon’s Tooth: 6 seconds

Thief
Cluster Bomb: No cooldown, 3 initiative

Engineer
Engineer doesn’t have spammable blasts the same way that these others do, but they have just so many of them. Blasts on shield, blasts on every turret, blasts on kit skills, blasts on gadgets, engineers have insane blasting ability.

So all of these classes have either massive access to blast finishers, extremely low cooldown blast finishers, or both. Now lets look at the others.

Necromancer
Putrid explosion is really the only decent blast finisher they have, though putrid mark can be used as well. Overall, necros have pretty bad access to blast finishing.

Ranger
Ranger has no good low cooldown blast finishers, but the one (non-pet) finisher they have is pretty strong. Call of the wild is a blast finisher as well as an aoe fury/might/swiftness.

So while necros and rangers don’t have the insane access to blast finishers as the other classes do, they still retain on-demand blast finishers that can be effectively used.

Mesmer
The prestige: A skill with a long cooldown that blast finishes on a 3-4 second delay.

….ok. Not only does mesmer have no access to a spammable blast finisher like cluster bomb or mighty blow, they don’t even have access to a blast finisher that can blast in a reasonable amount of time. If you try to blast a water or something with the prestige, half the time it’ll be gone by the time the blast actually hits. Mesmer is the only class in the game without anything even approaching basic access to a blast finisher, end of story.

Giving us access to one is not going to be the end of the world, and saying that blast finishers are rare or on long cooldowns is probably one of the most absurdly wrong statements I’ve seen this week.

Noyz.6430:

Exactly. This bug is game-breaking if you have a suit(like I do). And it shouldn’t be SO hard to fix… can ANet please hotfix this?

Game-breaking it is not. Annoying it is. Either way, Anet doesn’t care.

Ahem. iWarlock.

Gotta love that in this analysis you sorta forget that iSwordsman does more damage than either the duelist or the zeker.

Other than that, just another whine post from someone pretending to play mesmer. Nothing to see here.

mango.9267:

Lishtenbird.2814:

Kadj.6725:

I think having insane access to Chaos Armor via a quick and simple blast finisher would be close to overpowered.

Chaos Armour is considered to be a mostly useless Staff #4 skill and the worst combo effect in PvE. How can it be “overpowered”?

Chaos armor is far from useless. I can see how it’s underpowered in PvE, but chaos armor is a great defensive option in PvP settings.

And having access to a non-kitten blast finisher would give us insane access to chaos armor how exactly? We can already have as much access as is possible via the use of the leaps on mainhand sword and staff. The limiting factor is the fields, not the finishers.

SqueamishMoose.9216:

So it’s become pretty apparent that Blackgate is being actively double-teamed by the Tarnished Coast and Jade Quarry.

Captain Obvious to the rescue!!

Lexoj.8402:

It’s not just me, allot of people have been wanting this since 2012.

And they instituted the randomized colors to assuage the weaker among us like yourself. Learn some patience and wait.

And on top of that to think that anet cares at all that you’re in a frenzy because you can’t complete your map exploration for a week or two is rather amusing.

I’ll throw my 2 cents in that I really do like the fact that it roots you for the cast. It definitely gives the skill a feeling of weight and purpose. This really isn’t the problem at all, the problem is it feels like it has weight and purpose…and doesn’t.

A larger radius and either the channeled idea or enhanced damage/boon stripping/w/e would be perfect.

Raunchy.6891:

I realized that after I posted. Now I feel dumb lol.

Eh, it’s definitely a misleading tooltip. The range for summoning a clone is 1200….but nowhere on the tooltip does it state the range of the leap, and that’s a failure on the part of the devs.

@sirrealist: That’s actually a build that I’d been experimenting with post-patch, along with 10/20/0/20/20. After a decent amount of working with them, I’ve fallen back to the original 10/30/0/30/0. It just has the best overall damage and sustain of any of the variations I’ve tried, since one way or another you’re sacrificing damage.

So, the only thing that changes postpatch is your sigil and rune options. You still always require double energy sigils. For a pvp build, this just isn’t optional, particularly a build that has a focus on damage avoidance.

Your other sigils and your runes can be played with a bit. I’ve experimented with battle sigils + strength runes. I’ve also used doom sigils, and I actually like them quite a bit. The poison gives some nice pressure from the heal denial.

Edit: saw your question about the runes. Yes, the bonuses are additive.

aLovedhater.4096:

i normally take 2, (phantasmal disenchanter) and yeah, i know its not too much. i should have clarified that.

Also, you seem to have forgotten to actually post the video link.

Just a slight bit of something to note. Saying your build has ‘condition clears’ is a bit disingenuous. You have 1 uncontrollable condition removal on a 10s icd.

Overkillengine.6084:

Getting stunned or rooted at the wrong moment on a PU Mesmer is a death sentence vs a competent player.

Honestly, you could pull out the words ‘on a PU mesmer’ and your statement would just be an axiom of combat in this game. Once you reach the level of play that you’re discussing, the whole issue of ‘overpowered builds’ falls away and only player skill remains.

Hmm, yess. How about some fixes?

@Kadj: Nice testing. Note that the 4% crit chance is just your base value with no additional modifiers.

Haaaaaaaa no.

The ‘unique skins’ are the ceremonial weapon skins, easily acquired for like 20s on the trading post.

Yoroiookami.3485:

Pyroathiest.4168:

Yoroiookami.3485:

Pyroathiest.4168:

This is hilarious. I haven’t seen many more serious cases of learn to play.

Endless stuns on hambow? Lets see. We’ve got pin down that needs to be dodged and earthshaker that needs to be dodged. Staggering blow and backbreaker you can just walk out of the way for, so those are 2 skills that you actually need to dodge. As ranger you’ve got evades on a ton of weapons, and just normal regen from vigor and/or energy sigils would be enough to evade all of them if you have any skill whatsoever.

Edit: Also stunbreakers. Stunbreakers are good for your health.

This sounds good in theory. Do this and this to avoid that. The problem here is, I don’t want to build my ranger and equip certain skills only for this one OVERPOWERED build. This build is incredibly cheap and shouldn’t be encouraged nor defended. You sound like “Oh right, I’m so great, it’s clearly my skills. Learn to play noobs. Lololol!!!1!” while it’s not the problem here. This is just a cheap build made by people who can’t fight…well…fair.
Furthermore, I have a trait that reduces stuns etc. by 33%, my pet takes part of those effects and conditions, and yet this guy still managed to kill me fairly easy. I didn’t see him dodge once out of any of my attacks, he just rushed and kept knocking me back/down/around without giving my any chance of defending myself. This is not a matter of skill, it’s just a really cheap and overpowered build. It worries me that you can’t admit that and instead are like “oh yeah, you clearly suck”.

So you’re saying that having skills that evade and taking stunbreakers are only useful against hambow? Ok, good luck with that one.

Also, to clear up any confusion, I don’t play warrior ever. I play only mesmer, and I don’t seem to encounter this overpowered brick wall of warriors. Maybe I’m just that much better than you, or rather it might be more accurate to say that you’re that much worse than most of us.

Or maybe you have no idea what you’re talking about. =D

Eh, no skin off my nose if you don’t listen to advice. Just another person that I’ll beat if I ever encounter.

a t s e.9614:

I don’t think the OP is trolling, he just telling us how easy it is to rely on AI instead of yourself.

Since the OP refuses to actually post a build, we can’t actually know. Additionally, if the OP is really using a valk amulet, they won’t be unloading any burst at all with a mesmer. On top of that, phantasm builds don’t burst. They’re inherently sustained damage.

Yoroiookami.3485:

Pyroathiest.4168:

This is hilarious. I haven’t seen many more serious cases of learn to play.

Endless stuns on hambow? Lets see. We’ve got pin down that needs to be dodged and earthshaker that needs to be dodged. Staggering blow and backbreaker you can just walk out of the way for, so those are 2 skills that you actually need to dodge. As ranger you’ve got evades on a ton of weapons, and just normal regen from vigor and/or energy sigils would be enough to evade all of them if you have any skill whatsoever.

Edit: Also stunbreakers. Stunbreakers are good for your health.

This sounds good in theory. Do this and this to avoid that. The problem here is, I don’t want to build my ranger and equip certain skills only for this one OVERPOWERED build. This build is incredibly cheap and shouldn’t be encouraged nor defended. You sound like “Oh right, I’m so great, it’s clearly my skills. Learn to play noobs. Lololol!!!1!” while it’s not the problem here. This is just a cheap build made by people who can’t fight…well…fair.
Furthermore, I have a trait that reduces stuns etc. by 33%, my pet takes part of those effects and conditions, and yet this guy still managed to kill me fairly easy. I didn’t see him dodge once out of any of my attacks, he just rushed and kept knocking me back/down/around without giving my any chance of defending myself. This is not a matter of skill, it’s just a really cheap and overpowered build. It worries me that you can’t admit that and instead are like “oh yeah, you clearly suck”.

So you’re saying that having skills that evade and taking stunbreakers are only useful against hambow? Ok, good luck with that one.

Also, to clear up any confusion, I don’t play warrior ever. I play only mesmer, and I don’t seem to encounter this overpowered brick wall of warriors. Maybe I’m just that much better than you, or rather it might be more accurate to say that you’re that much worse than most of us.

nemka.1803:

no i found that the best way is just to stand near the other teams respwan (team arena) with a bunker and an engi and just burn anyone who jumps out in a few seconds.
but then i realized that i wouldn’t like the same being done to me so its time to try another build (the build is not presented for this reason, yet figuring it out shouldn’t be too hard with all the information i already gave).

This clause is the bit that makes me wonder if you’re purely trolling or if you were simply facing the absolute worst players in the game.

No, it does not. If by ‘worth looking into’ you mean ‘worth including in any build’, the answer is no.

EverythingEnds.4261:

Kadj.6725:

An additional point: I don’t have the data laying around anymore, but through some earlier searching I had found that someone tested Compounding. It does affect Mind Wrack, BUT. Every hit is calculated on each clone’s shatter.

What this ended up meaning is that the first clone shattered and got the full 9% boost. When the second clone shattered, it had 6% damage, and the third had only 3%.

This also means that, if your clones are shattering one at a time(I presume getting them all to fire at the same time guarantees 9% on all three), damage will be boosted by getting more clones out while the skill is playing out.

What if you use a shatter skill an summon more illusions, before the “shattered ones” have hit their targets?
Is it possible to get more than 9%?

Good question.

nemka.1803:

Daniel Handler.4816:

Hi Nemka. We can’t really helpful unless you post what build you are using. This is a question sirreliast raised more than once, which you have ignored in both your OP and your recent reply. Also you did not respond to any point made with your reply. I’m not trying to be offensive but is English your first language? If not what is another language you might feel comfortable writing in?

the questions(“points”) they asked were all answered in my top post.
i don’t need “help”.
i now realize that this was the wrong forum to post this topic.
no you being a smart kitten is not offensive, thanks for caring, good lad.

Doesn’t matter what forum you post in, everyone will laugh at you.

UltraSaX.8603:

Ok…final update…I’ve this problem only on the character in screenshot and sure is when there is the night phase.
No difference between Pve and Pvp…during the night, the animation is bugged.
Character name : Rehyka

Do you have the skin on top of an AC weapon?

VaticanIscariot.1732:

You know what? Whatever happened to Orb of Power? It seemed like a good concept. I remembered the thrill of attacking a keep to take a server’s orb and then escorting the player with the orb back to our territory. Was quite tense. Then you’d have enemy team trying to take it or stop us from taking it back.

Although, it did kinda suck of the enemy had all 3 orbs…

The main problem with orbs was that they proved to be an absolutely irresistible attraction to hackers. While the orbs themselves generated amazing fights and strategies, they were plagued with the never ending problem of flyhackers hopping into a keep, snatching the orb, and leaving.

Condition damage builds do damage in different ways than power builds, and are correspondingly more effective or less effective in different situations.

The most basic difference though, is that a fully offensive power build is glassy in zerker gear, but a fully offensive condition damage build is tanky, most likely stacking toughness. This allows for different opportunities.

In a power build, you never want to be in the middle of a skirmish, because it’s dangerous. There’s a lot of aoes, a lot of condition loading, it’s an overall nasty place to be. You hang around on the sidelines doing some damage until you can jump in for a powerful burst, and then get back out. With your power build, you’re able to make this powerful burst matter and have an effect.

If you tried to do that ‘jump in, burst, jump out’ tactic in a condition damage build, it wouldn’t work at all. Condition damage builds just aren’t based around bursting (which is why Maim is still a non-viable trait). However, you’re pretty tanky, you’ve got good sustain and good sustained aoe damage and control through conditions. Weakness is an incredibly powerful defensive condition, as is cripple, and aoe bleeding is strong pressure. The aforementioned condition load being a reason why power builds don’t skirmish in the middle is coming partly from you.

Condition damage builds are also able to specialize into a more defensive playstyle that power builds can’t quite match. Since a condition damage build doesn’t actually sacrifice any offense by going deep into the chaos traitline for PU, it’s potentially able to apply significant amounts of pressure while still having the capability for highly defensive play if it becomes necessary to do so. While PU phantasm (power) builds can do similar things, they’re inherently less effective because traiting into chaos sacrifices a significant amount of damage and phantasm sustain from the inspiration line.

What this allows you to do in a condition damage build is fulfill several roles at the same time. You can apply heavy pressure to a node defender through condition loading. Clone explosions work very well when attacking points because the aoe is large enough to hit nearly the whole point. This forces the defender to either eat the conditions or back off the point. Rapid kills/decaps can be achieved through proper aggressive play. This aggressive play is what many people falsely believe condition damage builds are incapable of. The aggressive style is different than in a power build, but is aggressive nonetheless. So this fulfills the role of roamer/node assaulter.

However, you’re also able to fill a somewhat different role. If the enemy team notices that you’re killing their home bunker, they’ll send someone to help. The condition damage build is able to transition to a highly evasive and defensive playstyle. This won’t hold the point, but it can easily maintain an active 2v1 without dying if played skillfully. This forces the overall game into a numbers advantage for your team, allowing them to win the match. A power build isn’t effectively capable of this.

On the other hand, a power build is able to strongly sway larger team fights. Condition damage builds (on mesmer) are somewhat less effective in a larger fight, but a properly played power build can lay down decisive burst damage to control a team fight.

The role of the power mesmer is in team support through direct fight control. The role of the condition mesmer is in team support through forcing numbers advantages or side point control.

With a PU condition build, a bunker (probably actually decap, not bunker) engineer is really just not worth your time. It’s honestly not worth almost anyones time across most builds and classes. Just go somewhere where you’re not bashing your head against a billion knockbacks and automated response.

As for a necro, this one is doable, but the difficulty varies depending on what build they’re running. Could you elaborate more on which necro builds you’re having trouble with?

Carighan.6758:

If you can be stronger from something as simple as selecting a different trait, you’d be a pretty bad player to not even make that tiny effort, no?

Not a bad player per se, but a scrub.

cue ross with his handy dandy link

Honestly, a bigger problem is the complete and total lack of any sort of explanation. There was a recent thread in the mesmer forums from a guy asking help with pvp, cause he was completely clueless. He’d been playing it, but he didn’t really know the objectives well enough, or how to fight them, or what the difference between arenas and hotjoins and stuff were.

He at least had the presence of mind to ask, and has since learned, but the very fact that he had to ask those questions is indicative of a big problem in the new player experience for pvp.

Mind wrack, yes. Only phantasm damage modifiers affect phantasm damage though.

Within any given stat combo, you can only have 1 with offense and 1 with defense.

For amulets…I just take utility because they are the only ones that have that option.

alamore.1974:

I usually loose when they pop moa at 30%ish hp…
Guaranteed win

But still predictable

If it’s so predictable, why don’t you just use 1 dodge and avoid the moa?

Not sure if trolling or facing the worst players in the game.

infantrydiv.1620:

Pyroathiest.4168:

infantrydiv.1620:

Pyroathiest.4168:

jportell.2197:

You wouldn’t believe the amount of times I get told off because the person I am trying to get to stomp, res, cap, etc said “I have a legendary l2p the game noob”, Then I ask what their sPvP rank is and they say “Rank 16 what do you know scrub?”

I’ve literally never had this happen to me.

I’m also only rank 34 or something like that currently, and yet I somehow am able to easily maintain top 200 solo queue (disregarding decay) while exclusively playing mesmer. What does that say with regards to rank meaning skill?

Hmmm… I just searched for you on gw2score.com and they’ve never heard of you ^.^

Also, what is an athiest?

Ah yeah, you’ll want to search for Pyroatheist.9031

This account is my forum alt.

I actually just found your alt, which is why I edited my original post. What you do on your alt is pretty much the easiest way to boost your rank by waiting 4-5 days inbetween matches. I used this method on my alt and achieved rank 6 sq fairly easily. Playing daily I would not have gotten close to that rank.

Eh, it’s not so much as I purposefully do it as much as I get bored of PvPing rather rapidly, and so I tend to not do it for weeks/months at a time. That being said, I fail to see the relation between playing intermittently and gaining more rank. It’s just a pure win/loss relation no matter what.