Guild Wars 2

Nretep.2564:

You can’t make skills ally-targeted.

Why not? Let’s break the mold!

Now that I think about it…

0/15/0/30/25 might be worth trying too. That way you could run both Warden’s Feedback (Inspiration VIII) and Restorative Mantras (Inspiration X) at the same time at the cost of 15% Phantasm damage. This also boosts your critical chance a little more than 10/10/0/25/25 would have though, and also lets your Phantasms apply bleeds.

I think that entertaining putting points into lllusion is worthwhile, despite how you won’t want to be shattering too often.

I know it’s partially a repeat, but here’s my take on it:

10/10/0/25/25

Sword / Focus & Greatsword

(DPS with a hint of support)

Domination – (III) Empowered Illusions
Dueling – (II) Phantasmal Fury
Chaos – (N/A)
Inspiration – (II, VIII) Glamour Mastery, Warden’s Feedback
Illusions – (III, X) Compounding Power, Phantasmal Haste

Trait Bonuses
30% (Total) Phantasm Damage (Inspirations Grandmaster Minor Trait + Domination III Major Trait)
20% Faster Recharge on Phantasm attacks (The phantasms themselves attack more often – this is most potent with the Warden, but also effects the Berserker – Not always a consistent 20% based on the Phantasm though…)
100 Power
10% Condition Duration
100 Precision (Slightly less than 5% Critical Chance)
10% Critical Damage
250 Vitality
250 Healing Power
250 Condition Damage
25% Faster Shatter Recharge
Interrupts apply vulnerability
Gain 5 seconds of vigor on delivering a critical hit. This effect can only trigger once every 5 seconds.
Phantasms have Fury (+20% Critical Chance)
Phantasms have 5 seconds of Retaliation when cast
Phantasms pulse Regeneration to allies
All Shatters apply Confusion
Shattering grants 1 stack of might per Illusion (10 seconds)
Illusion summoning skills recharge 20% faster (Stacks with Focus trait for 40% faster recast on Phantasmal Warden)

Suggested Utilities: Feedback, Null Field, (Your Choice for third slot, maybe Signet of Illusions?)
Elite: Time Warp

Main damage comes from Phantasmal Warden, especially on stationary boss monsters. Both the Warden and Berserker have Whirl Combo finishers built into their attacks, (Despite not being indicated in their tool tips) so they can be placed within combo fields to apply additional damage or cures / heals depending on the field. Your traits allow you to cast them more often, and also allow existing Phantasms to attack more frequently. With the trait, your Temporal Curtain and Warden also both reflect projectiles, which is crucial in certain fights. (Combined with Feedback… you can have reflects up most of the time if timed and positioned correctly)

Sometimes I swap the sword for a scepter if I know it’s going to be mostly a ranged fight so that I can keep auto attacking while using the focus. Confusing Images (Scepter 3) isn’t bad either. In general you’ll want to use your Greatsword though for ranged fights unless you’re casting the Focus Phantasm.

If you really wanna get supporty and hate the idea of using a scepter for long range attacks while using the Focus, using Restorative Mantras (Inspiration X) either by dropping Inspiration VIII or pulling 5 points from another Trait line would allow you to spam heal by using Mantra of Pain. This can potentially help with Phantasm durability while also giving you the option for a group heal. Worth considering, I think!

One of my favorite things about Feedback is that it’s an instant-cast ability in that it has no cast time and can be used while channeling, auto-attacking, etc.

Making it a ground-target ability would mean that it couldn’t be able to be used on the fly like that anymore, since you’d be required to target a spot to place it. (It might also require a cast time, too)

There has been times while playing that I wish I could place it but I think a nice compromise would be to be able to place it on allies as targets as well as enemies. It kind of makes sense, too… since the bubble works both ways. (It reflects projectiles from within, or protects those inside from getting hit by projectiles)

So, rather than a ground target… I’d like for it to be able to be cast on any target, friend or foe, rather than only being able to be cast on enemies like it works now.

Between getting 5:1 karma trainrolled, finally finding even-number fights only to be repeatedly focused down by a team of three glass thieves with double guardian backup and pretentious forum warrior antics, I retreated into PvE this week.

Life is generally better when I don’t read the forums. I felt like my blood pressure was getting low so I decided to take a peek today.

Power helps the initial burst from The Prestige too, (as was already noted,) which actually packs a surprising punch in addition to its burning damage.

A gal in my guild runs a similar trait spread but uses a full Apothecary set. (She has 20 in Illusions instead of Inspiration) I tried the 20/0/30/0/20 build using a mix of power and condition damage gear but was sort of disappointed with the overall damage output. What it did provide was some pretty nice healing via regeneration though.

Since you’ve got 20 in Inspirations, an Apothecary mix (Maybe instead of the Rabid armor?) might make a neat Support aspect to the build as you’d be putting some potent Regeneration Boons on nearby allies with your Phantasms.

In any case, I think the hybrid idea is kind of neat. It doesn’t pack a huge punch in particular field, but lets you do a little of everything. If a jack/jill of all trades feel was what you were going for, I think you accomplished it pretty well.

I think you might be confused about how some of the “on heal” (Mender’s Purity – Inspiration IV / Centaur Runes) triggers work.

These abilities are only activated by using a #6 heal ability. (Ether Feast, Mirror, Mantra of Recovery) Rune triggers in particular typically have a 10 second cool down as well. In addition, preparing Mantra of Recovery will not activate Mender’s Purity for a condition cleanse, but using the Power Return charges will. (Also keep in mind that Mender’s Purity does not have an internal cool down, so with the Harmonious Mantras trait, you could trigger three quick condition removals all at once if you used all three heal charges.)

That said, activating a Restorative Mantras trigger by preparing a Mantra also will not activate the Swiftness from Runes of the Centaur. (Although using Power Return from Mantra of Recovery will trigger Mender’s Purity)

In summary:

You won’t get Swiftness from Runes of the Centaur from triggering a Restorative Mantras heal by preparing a Mantra.

You won’t clear conditions via Mender’s Purity (Inspiration IV) from triggering a Restorative Mantras heal by preparing a Mantra.

In other words, (generally) procs don’t proc procs.

If the build is built around being able to stealth often to take advantage of Prismatic Understanding, isn’t at least the reduced cool down of The Prestige worth considering, especially coupled with Condition removal, which the build currently lacks?

I was trying to outline the potential of Condition Duration, since the current suggestions don’t really seem to implement it as much as it could be utilized. (Aside from Bleeding)

Runes and food aside, the comparison of the two:

20 Domination – (V, IX)
+ 200 Power
+ 20% Condition Duration
+ Inflict 5 seconds of Vulnerability when you interrupt a foe
+ Dazing a foe also applies 5 stacks of Vulnerability
+ Clones cripple nearby foes when killed (Trait V)
+ 20% Faster Cool down on Torch Skills, Torch Skills Cure Conditions (Trait IX)

20 Dueling – (III, X)
+ 200 Precision (Roughly 10% Critical Chance)
+ 20% Critical Damage
+ Gain 5 seconds of Vigor on delivering a critical hit. This effect can only trigger once every 5 seconds.
+ Illusions inflict bleeding on critical hits.
+ Gain 3 seconds of retaliation when you block an attack. (Trait III)
+ Create a clone at your current position when you dodge. (Trait X)

I understand how Dueling III is definitely worthwhile since between Aegis procs and Scepter II, a lot of blocking will happen.

That said, the build currently lacks Power, so its retaliation wouldn’t be as potent as if the build were running say, Soldier’s Gear or even Carrion gear or something. It has Precision because of the Rabid gear, but there isn’t much Power or Critical Damage for Critical hits to increase. Mostly the Precision is for Sharper Images and Critical Infusion, from what I can tell. Removing those traits removes most of the need for the extra Precision provided by Dueling.

I guess I’m thinking about the build from a different gear perspective, which is where the problem lies. Another benefit of Rabid gear is thakittens Toughness is shared with Illusions, whereas the Vitality on Carrion gear would not be. (But it seems to me that Clones are so fragile now anyway that the Toughness they gain is kind of negligible.)

The original poster asked for Rune suggestions, so I provided some, combined with an alternative spec that could help capitalize on the benefits of the Rune setup I provided. I wouldn’t say that I’m being purposefully misleading. None of the information I offered was false to my knowledge, and I didn’t say that it was the best setup in every situation. I was simply suggesting another option that some players might fight more suitable to their play style.

Despite the prevailing opinion on Deceptive Evasion and Sharper Images, I’d still encourage you to try out the Domination Traits at least once or twice.

With the proper combination of resources, you can effectively double the duration of your conditions, including burning, bleeding, cripple, confusion, blind, vulnerability, etc. (Basically anything with the red background icon, so not stun or daze)

x 2 Mad King (10)
x 2 Lyssa (10)
x2 Giver Weapon (20)
20 Domination Trait (20)
Rare Veggie Pizza / Garlic Kale Sautee / Koi Cakes (40)

It’s an argument of quality over quantity. Yes, you would sacrifice illusion bleed on crit, but the other conditions you apply could improve drastically. The AoE burn from the Prestige would become a 6 second burn instead of a 3 second burn. 7 seconds of bleeding from Winds of Chaos would become 14 seconds. Even the crappy Phantasmal Mage’s Confusion would become 6 seconds instead of 3, and it would also cure conditions with its bounce. (You could potentially increase the Mage and Warlock’s rate of fire by taking the Illusions X trait instead of Illusions V, since you’ll already have plenty of condition duration.)

More duration means more ticks, which means more damage. Cleansing Conflagrations (Domination IX) would also mean that you could use The Prestige more often. (24 second cool down, reduced from 30 seconds)

As of the patch last month, Condition Duration supposedly also applies to your illusions now, so your staff clones will also benefit from your extended condition duration. (2 second burn, 14 second bleed, 10 second vulnerability – when you have 100% Condition Duration)

Just because things have been a certain way in the past because X person made Y video months ago doesn’t mean that new ideas are inherently flawed, especially in light of recent mechanic changes.

Didn’t call you out personally, Zumi. It was more about this statement:

Embolism.8106:

This isn’t a new kind of Mesmer at all. Condition Mesmers have existed since release, and many Condition Mesmers already use Prismatic Understanding (before this patch).

Folks are too reliant on Deceptive Evasion, in my opinion.

PPS – Have you considered swapping the 20 in Dueling for 20 in Domination?

This would give you access to the Torch Cooldown Trait, longer Condition Duration, and the Crippling Dissipation Adept Trait for Cripple on Clone Death. Since you’re using the Scepter and Staff your clone generation is probably pretty good even without Deceptive Evasion, and since you’re not utilizing a Power Build, Critical Hits aren’t quite as important for landing / improving Condition Damage attacks.

You’d be missing out on the Vigor boost from Dueling 5, but would have 20% extended condition duration over all, plus additional Condition Removal on your Torch Skills, (something that Mesmers sorely need)

PS – Your build is new in the sense that it was posted recently and combines the aspects of “Hidden Fire” (A Power-Bursty Prismatic Understanding Build) with a condition build.

Given the rampant use of Shattercat, Immortal, Seven Mirror and Chaos-Support attempts, I think that it’s fine to try something different – at least for yourself – and share the play style. Don’t be discouraged by folks’ “It’s all been done before” attitude. It was new for you, therefore it was new.

Thank you for sharing the build and giving us the opportunity to talk shop about it!

Nightmare, Undead, or some combination of Condition Duration (2 x Mad King, 2 x Lyssa, 2 x Nightmare, or something like that) runes might work well for this build.

Boon Duration might also work nicely, like 2 x Water, 2 x Monk, etc.

Undead will likely give the biggest bang for your buck, since it’s relatively inexpensive and the 6-rune bonus is another 5% of your Toughness applied as additional condition damage. (This stacks with the 5% you’re getting from the Chaos 25 Trait)

Centaur or Air Runes are also nice options if you’re feeling that lack of Swiftness with this build, or you could just swap in a Focus for running around. (Centaur has a much longer duration on its Swiftness, is group-friendly, and also extends Bleed Duration)

0/20/0/25/25 if you want a Phantasm build with Illusionist’s Celerity.

Now you can also take Illusions X for Phantasmal Haste, giving your Phantasms a faster attack rate.

20/0/0/25/25 is also an option for more Power / 15% more Phantasm Damage / Greatsword Traits for dungeons, although you might be surprised how much a Phantasmal Warlock from the Staff hits with a Berserker Build, particularly on bosses with lots of different conditions applied to them. Phantasmal Warden is also nice for dungeons, and can be Reflect-Traited with this build as well.

Try it, you’ll like it!

Blink can be used to reach some technically accessible areas that are difficult to run too, such as the edges of the ravine near the Northwestern borderlands supply camp (Like the ones on the left and right if you’re heading down into the camp from the south) or the cliff sides on the path to the Northeastern borderlands supply camp. (Just south of the sentry)

Other professions with teleportation skills can utilize similar tricks, but those who can’t or have their skills on cool down will have to take the long way around to reach you. It’s very nice for escaping, or for attaining a superior position with ranged attacks.

wintermute.4096:

It’s almost as if they played their own version of “corrupt a wish” with those patchnotes.

- You want to signet of illusions to work reliably?
- Fine, but it will be insignificant boost now!

- You want access to the new condition instead of confusion?
- Fine, but it’s on scepter, and on with completely unpractical way of applying it too! (scepter being still complete crap by design as well)

- You want anything else?
- Fine, but we’ll nerf blurred frenzy just because.

^This cracked me up.

Anyway, regarding the thread:

Pyro, thank you for the patient and eloquent response to these trait / skill changes.

Or use scepter instead.

(I know people don’t like it, but it’s an option. Mantra of Pain too / instead maybe?)

Winds.3087:

How about getting stunned during frenzy?!

Already immobilized during frenzy, and it’s more or less a channeled ability too… a stun wouldn’t effect instant-cast spells, which are what Mesmers generally use while using Frenzy, as far as I know.

LiuliRenai.3928:

It’s interesting that the biggest nerf was to Focus’ Illusionary Veil/Into the Void and no one has complained about this one specifically. I guess we saw it coming and it is a reasonable change. However it greatly harms the Focus as a viable weapon with iWarden’s placement and A.I. being so luckluster.

I complained, and have been complaining. I have lots of practice complaining. <3

Temporal Curtain / Into the Void – That 1 second cooldown suuuucks.

Mesmer
Into the Void: This skill now has a 1 second recharge before it can be used after placing Temporal Curtain.
Very disappointed to see this change. If they’re going to change this skill, it should be to make its swiftness stack correctly with other sources of swiftness. Adding a one-second cool down between the curtain and the pull was unnecessary. :/

I’m very upset about this clear resignation to appease whines.

I think my biggest frustration is the repetition of the supposed developer mantra of “bring professions up” rather than nerf them down. The prevailing practice has clearly been the opposite of this mindset, as we’ve seen significant handicaps applied to the majority of professions across the board. (With a few exceptions.)

Thank you for the patient and eloquent write-up, Pyro. Hopefully it doesn’t fall upon deaf ears!

Looks kinda neat! I’m eager to see more rabid builds out there.

Have you thought about using the new and improved “Furious Interruption” in place of Deceptive Evasion? I was thinking it might work well with the Signet of Domination and Magic Bullet that your build uses.

Tim Gunn told me to make it work, so I will.

Does anyone else think that it’s weird that the Vengeful Images change was listed under the Dueling (Precision) section instead of Inspiration (Vitality) where it normally is?

Was that a mistake, or did it get moved?

26/6/13 Patch: Phantasm Retaliation officially busted.

LumAnth.5124:

I…. I don’t know what to say.
…

NERF iMAGE

No, not iMAGE!!

Apparently, writing the number equivalent of “fifty five percent” after the letter “A” gets turned into kittens by the language filter. -.-

DiogoSilva.7089:

Increased the phantasm base hit points by 55% in PvP and WvW.
Increased the phantasm base hit points by 270% in PvE.

I feel like this needs the whole story.

Signet of Illusions: Decreased the bonus hit points to clones and phantasms to 50%.
(From 200%)
Split the hit point values of clones and phantasms by game type:
Increased the phantasm base hit points by 55% in PvP and WvW.
Increased the phantasm base hit points by 270% in PvE.
Decreased the clone base hit points by 25% in PvP and WvW.
Increased the clone base hit points by 28% in PvE.

If I remember correctly, Phantasms currently only have a base health of… around 2.5k or so? I know the iDefender has much more. They’re generally quite fragile though. kitten increase of “not a lot” doesn’t exactly make them immortal engines of destruction. (The PvE adjustment is pretty nice for dungeon-runners though)

Bummed about the Clone health reduction in PvP.

The huge retaliation nerf for phantasms pretty rough on them too:

Vengeful Images: This trait now only applies retaliation for 5 seconds when they are created and does not persist after that.

The retaliation was previously permanent. Blah.

Holy whoa, Nerf Central…

Blurred Frenzy longer cool down and lost Invulnerability?

Illusionist’s Celerity moved up 20 points

Signet of Illusions – “Fixed” and then nerfed… ouch.

Temporal Curtain / Into the Void – That 1 second cooldown suuuucks.

Mind Spike (This is the third attack of the sword auto chain, right?) – “Extra” damage on targets with no boons, but reduced damage overall? Actually kinda interesting.

Fixed the iBerserker at least, but huge nerfs to Phantasm builds with Vengeful Images retaliation duration mega-nerf and Illusionist’s Celerity moving up.

I liked the big damage lllusionary Counter used to provide, despite how few people seem to use the Scepter. I hope that the Torment attached now is significant enough to compensate. Will be worth experimenting with, although even with the the increased Condition Damage on the Scepter Trait, I’ll be hard pressed to pick it over the Focus Trait or Restorative Mantras in Inspiration.

Looks like Illusions Trait Line and Interrupts for all / most!

TheBigfootNZ.4605:

Was funny to see the small party of CD players who invited me into a group last night to then compliment me on my necros look that they had noticed during the fighting earlier, surprised they even recognized me from that range. Was quite a shock, I didnt think people took notice of such things (granted for me every ones a low poly model, so i cant really notice those sorts of things myself)… now ill feel bad everytime I help mow down a CD player in the zerg, since it might be one of them.

<3

Don’t worry dear, we generally don’t participate in groups of more than ten, and even that is a stretch. We like our small group play.

Mow freely and without abandon! We still dig your style.

- S

I like the idea of reducing all Illusion cool downs by 10% and then making Illusionist’s Celerity a 10% reduction instead, making it so that not selecting the trait isn’t as integral to so many Mesmer builds.

I like the idea of removing the trait all together and just making all Illusions have a 20% faster recast as a freebie too.

I don’t think that it’s as bad as you say it is, Pyro, and resent the fact that you don’t seem to have any problem expressing opinions as if they’re irrefutable fact. I appreciate the work that you and Kylia do for the community, but maybe there’s other voices out there too?

I do think that it could be better, but don’t want to discourage players from trying things out for themselves. Who knows, they might find something that fits their play style better than any of the “OP” bandwagon cookie cutter builds already out there.

The biggest problem with posting about super powered builds? Drawing attention to useful things apparently gets them nerfed. I’m all for innovation outside of the box.

Actually, I have a question about the iMage.

How does it work when you have the Cleansing Conflagration (Domination IX, 20% reduced Torch Skill cooldown, and Torch Skills remove conditions) trait?

I understand that you clear a condition on yourself when you use the Prestige, but do you also get a condition removed when you cast the iMage? Or does the iMage’s auto attack clear conditions on targets too?

I’m at work so I can’t really test this right now, but I’m curious as to how that trait works exactly… it might make it a slightly more viable Disenchanter-like Phantasm if he actually cures stuff too when traited.

(Thanks to Kate Austinmer on Crystal Desert for pointing this out!)

Edit: Even if it does clear conditions with its attack, the Phantasmal Disenchanter’s attack rate is far superior in general.

Scepter / Focus isn’t terrible either, even in PvE.

There’s a lot of Scepter hate on the forum, but the thing that I think we tend to forget is that the Scepter is our only main hand option that allows consistent ranged damage and an off-hand weapon together.

Yes, the auto attack is a little slow, but with a good amount of power it actually hits pretty hard, especially the third hit. Scepter #3 also packs a pretty solid punch. (I run with mostly Berserker gear, and Confusing Images crits for over 1,000 damage for me – and hits five times)

The Focus #5 Phantasm skill provides our most damage / per animation Phantasm available. With power / critical damage gear, I’ve thrown it at level 80 world bosses (like Jormag, etc.) and seen it do over 10k damage in a single cycle. You’ll get similar results in Fractals. Traited, the Phantasm will also reflect projectiles during its combat animation, which will provide even more damage.

Since folks who use support Phantasms usually use the Inspiration (Vitality / Healing Power) trait line anyway for Phantasm Retaliation and AoE Regeneration boons, picking up Inspiration VIII isn’t too far off the usual course anyway. The Focus #4 skill (Temporal Curtain) also makes a reflection wall if traited, in addition to providing a Light combo field.

In PvP, the Temporal Curtain → Start Casting Phantasmal Warden → Trigger Into the Void mid-cast combo to pull an opponent to the ground and then spawn a whirling Phantasm right on top of them combo is definitely worth practicing. The results when executed properly are very satisfying!

How does this work with the Scepter? Well, the Focus abilities truly shine when you’re fighting against opponents who attack with at least some projectile attacks. Since the focus is your only Ranged Main Hand option, the Scepter and Focus actually synergize pretty well together. Dredge or Ranger spamming at you with arrows or sonic blasts? Drop a temporal curtain to hide behind and reflect those projectiles while hitting back with your own auto attack or Confusing Images. Want to summon a Phantasmal Warden on a Jade Maw Tentacle, but don’t want to run up right next to it to auto attack too? Use the Scepter! (But watch out for Jade Colossus Reflects!)

Basically, you can make any off-hand weapon work with the Scepter, although you’ll want a solid gear and trait set up for what you want to do. Each weapon’s usefulness varies depending on the situation, but the short story is that the Scepter isn’t quite as terrible as folks might make it seem.

Yeah… these “previews” … we’re getting all riled up over unverified, unofficial “leaks,” right? I’m still questioning their validity.

Time will tell!

Dear Howling Jimmy of [Bulb] on Yak’s Bend,

I love your style. Please stay awesome.

<3, Sin

The Minor Adept trait “Illusionists Celerity” has been made the Minor Grandmaster trait and the other Minor traits have been pushed down.

Basically the worst news for Mesmers since the game came out. That’s like… what, half of our skills (weapon and utility) that will suffer unless we sink 25 points into Illusion? Or rather, over a third of our skill points?

I guess instead of 5 points being a staple, now it’ll be 25 points? Very disappointing.

I suppose we could try to make the most of it and consider what else is in Illusions that all build could benefit from… Compounding Power, Shattered Invigoration, etc… still though, augh. This doesn’t promote diversity at all. It’s extremely limiting.

Carighan.6758:

The iMage can be fixed in a number of ways, but none are truly useful.

The core issue is Confusion, not the Mage. If Confusion were to be re-thought (which honestly it needs to be, it just doesn’t work out as a burst condition, see previous vs current balance in WvW), then the iMage would fall into place on its own.

I disagree. The problem is both.

The Mage is tied with the Phantasmal Defender for the longest cool down period at 30 seconds. (Phantasmal Warden comes in next at 24 seconds)

The Mage last the second slowest attack base attack period for on-land Phantasms at 6.3 seconds, after the Phantasmal Warden.

The Mage utilizes a bounce attack, which with current bounce mechanics means thakittens Retaliation buff has the potential to land on itself or another Phantasm, essentially wasting the bounce if the the Vengeful Images trait was already chosen.

The Mage has sub-par and unpredictable range, apparently choosing somewhere between 800 and 1000m. (Compared to to the 900-1200 attainable with the Warlock or Duelist)

The Mage’s projectile has low velocity, making it relatively easy to avoid.

It’s overall very flawed compared to other Phantasms, even the currently bugged Berserker. Fixing Confusion (or reverting confusion to its previous strength) won’t make it more useful, especially with only three seconds of duration.

If you can manage to survive the initial burst (Stun Breaker + Blurred Frenzy, or something like that) and they stealth away for a second attack, Illusionary Riposte (Off-Hand Sword #4) and/or Illusionary Counter (Scepter #2) can be used to block Backstab / Cloak and Dagger, make a Clone, and deal a good chunk of damage.

Superior Runes of Air can also hit glass Thieves pretty hard if you get lucky with the Lightning Strike trigger. I’ve been fortunate enough to see a Thief crumple beneath a Lightning Strike and two ripostes, followed up by a shatter from the subsequently spawned clones. I don’t think that thief knew what happened by the time he was downed, either.

He’s still good Shatter Fodder at least… well, not even that, since he has base a 30 second (!?) cooldown.

I think an area of effect pulse of its abilities might make it a slightly more useful phantasm, rather than a bouncing, low velocity projectile. The rate of fire on the Phantasmal Mage is the second-slowest of the on-land Phantasms, (after the Phantasmal Warden,) which also has a semi-AoE attack.

An AoE pulse of Retaliation for allies and Confusion (or Torment… or Burning, or both?) for enemies would be fantastic. Perhaps it would be stationary like the iWarden or something like that, and maintain its relatively slow rate of fire to compensate for providing an AoE. I’m not sure what kind of Misty weapon it would hold instead of a scepter, but it really does need to be adjusted in order to actually be useful.

It’s sort of heartbreaking to receive an account bound Fractal Weapon Skin for a weapon that your character can’t or won’t use, especially when it’s one that someone else in your group is desperately seeking.

I would love an option to trade these in for a token that could be used for either an alternate skin, or perhaps at a ratio like 3:1 or something like that.

I think that the Trading Post would be much more useful if we could sort armor by armor class sub types, i.e. a search for “Light,” armor.

Being able to search for “Leggings” as a subcategory is helpful, but it could be further streamlined by sorting out the Heavy and Medium armor types if you’re searching for Light armor specifically.

My room mate had another suggestion too – A “usable by me” check box. Brilliant!

(X-Posted from Black Lion Trading Post Forum when I realized that there is a Suggestion Forum)

Kensei.1495:

Mesmer

Into the Void: This skill now has a 1 second recharge before it can be used after placing Temporal Curtain.

Very disappointed to see this change. If they’re going to change this skill, it should be to make its swiftness stack correctly with other sources of swiftness. Adding a one-second cool down between the curtain and the pull was unnecessary. :/

I think that the Trading Post would be much more useful if we could sort armor by armor class sub types, i.e. a search for “Light,” armor.

Being able to search for “Leggings” as a subcategory is helpful, but it could be further streamlined by sorting out the Heavy and Medium armor types if you’re searching for Light armor specifically.

Edit: My room mate had another suggestion too – A “usable by me” check box. Brilliant!

Great write-up for a very interesting build. Similarly to the Chaos Maestro style build, the boon combos and setup seem a little daunting to execute in chaotic situations, but it still looks like it would be fun to try out.

Thank you for sharing it! I’m curious as to how much healing effectiveness this build loses by using something other than Cleric’s armor / Magi Trinkets. (The latter of which I think are very underutilized, and I’m glad to see them used!) From my understanding, Restorative Mantras doesn’t benefit a whole lot from Healing Power, but would the hit to Regeneration make all of the combos not worthwhile?

Also, would this be a feasible build with a condition angle instead? (My reason for asking is mostly selfish – I have a set of Apothecary gear with Altruism runes and and trying to get around buying a new set of Cleric’s gear and runes to go with it. ^^)

Ryn.6459:

@Sinaya:
-Got my staff in fractals. My swords are berserker (I put it wrong in the builder, sorry).

By the way, I gonna try to take more benefit from phantasm’ retaliation (I will need a carefull position during the fights).

Ah, lucky! Those Cavalier weapons are super rare.

Despite how uncommon it is to have a Cavalier weapon, I still might recommend swapping out for a Knight weapon, or at least something with Precision on it. (Berserker, Rampager, even Rabid…) At 28% Critical Chance, you’re missing out on a lot of potential damage, given that you currently have 74% Critical Damage bonus. (You’re missing out on that huge 2.24 multiplier 72% of the time!)

Even with Fury AND a full 250 Precision from 10 Stacks off of a Perception Sigil, you’d only be at 58% Critical Chance, which means you’re still missing out on Critical Hits on more than a third of your of your attacks, including damage dealt by Phantasms. (Remember that Fury on you and Fury on a Phantasm from the Phantasmal Fury trait do not stack)

On another subject, I personally think that Divinity Runes are overrated. Something more mobility-oriented like Rune of the Centaur or Air might be an offensive option, or possibly Melandru (Toughness) or Hoelbrak (Power) for Condition defense. Superior Rune of the Pack is a nice option too for concentrated power / precision, or potentially also Lyssa for Precision and some nice heal / elite use boons. (This is mostly personal preference though)

And then there’s always the Ruby Orb route if you’d really like to stack lots of offensive stats since the rest of your gear is quite defensively-oriented.

Any reward to a “winning” server beyond what they’re already receiving (Passive WvW bonuses, map access, badge farming, etc.) is a terrible idea. It would create an even more unbalanced playing field than we already have and further encourages band-wagon server hopping.

I like the idea of rewarding performance rather than who has the most points at the end of a match. I’m not sure how exactly that would be quantified (Events completed? Overall kills or something?) but rewarding more highly populated servers for “winning” a match would exacerbate the problems underpopulated servers already deal with, namely lack of coverage.

Also, the Staff Phantasm (Illusionary Warlock) hits like a truck if you can manage to land an attack with it, especially if your target is saturated with conditions. In my experience, players don’t really target it or avoid it the same way they do Illusionary Swordsmen (Off-Hand Sword) because they don’t see them as much of a threat compared to the Swordie or the hugely telegraphed Illusionary Duelist (Pistol).

The trick is to actually get the attack to land though, since it is kinda slow and relatively easy to dodge. (Luckily, its attack is easy to mistake for a Clone’s Winds of Chaos!)

As far as I know, Level 80 Exotic Cavalier (Toughness, Power, Critical Damage) weapons aren’t readily available, despite being an option in build editor websites.

You may want to consider going for Knight’s (Toughness, Power, Precision) weapons instead, since your critical chance is kind of low (28%.) You would maintain the same power and toughness while improving your chance to crit at a cost of critical damage. (Roughly 6% Critical Chance increase at the cost of 10% Critical Damage)

That said, if you’ve found a place to get Level 80 Exotic Cavalier weapons, I’d love to know where they came from!

Pyroatheist.9031:

If you’re trying to get a set of cavalier armor from fractals, you’re going to be very very disappointed. There are few things in this game that I would recommend against doing more than trying to farm cavalier armor in fractals. I can tell you right now, you will farm fractals for the next year, and probably not see more than 2 more pieces of cavalier armor. Use something else.

Oh, I totally understand. It wasn’t my intention to attempt to farm the gear out of Fractals, since I’m sure the drop rate is abysmal. That’s why I made my original post – to see if anyone had found Cavalier armor elsewhere, in case I’d missed it. I don’t run explore-mode dungeons very often and thought that maybe there was a token or karma version of the armor somewhere I’d missed, but apparently not.

That said, I think it would be a neat set to experiment with. Having the gear is apparently so uncommon that I can’t find a build editor site that even has the Cavalier stat distribution as an option for armor, (Just Trinkets) and a few folks on the forum weren’t aware that it even existed. I’ll count myself lucky to have a piece of it at all, even if it’s just pants. It actually worked out really well for me since I bought all of my Soldier’s (Power, Toughness, Vitality) gear with Karma in Orr, but couldn’t find the pants out there. The Cavalier piece fits in sorta nicely with high precision trinkets.

My thought was that if I could combine Cavalier armor (which I know has a somewhat poor stat:critical damage ratio compared to ascended jewelry, but hear me out) with a set of “of the Knight” (Major Precision, Minor Power / Toughness – stat combo does not exist on armor) Trinkets, I could get a decent mix of Toughness, Precision, Power and Critical Damage.

Mostly I was hoping someone new of some dungeon token or karma armor that had Cavalier stats that I’d missed, but apparently not. Pity! Will keep at it with Fractals and hope I get lucky!