Guild Wars 2

Sublimatio.6981:

Rework mantras. Make them basically 3 charges. And the trait which increased their numbers previously, should make them stronger. Like healing mantra heal more (and % of heal for others in aoe), condi mantra strip more condis, stability mantra break stun from others and longer stability + vigor, distraction mantra stunning target, pain mantra more dmg, aoe, stripping boons.

And add elite mantra that launches target away. (force unleash)

Another idea, or rather bug fix: make phantasms and clones use our % dmg increase! Phantasm is MY attack, MY spell, why doesn’t it deal 10% more dmg? sigil says it increases MINE dmg and phantasm is obviously my dmg….

I like the charge idea. But the channeling duration should be reduced by a sec or so. Also if we have 3 charges by default, whats a good new trait for Harmonious mantras?

I mean any other scept worth taking? Like a mesmery one.

So its not worth getting ? I want the quip too but for 2 skills and the phantasm does not weild it too. Any alternatives?

With the recent nerfs or fixes almost everyone is experiencing something wrong or so they thought. I think its more of like a psychological issue or placebo effect

Bump

/15 chars

chaosmike.8405:

wait so can we post some of our ideas here? Either way, I have one so here it goes :P

---

I wanted to challenge people who’ve said a mesmer bunker is not viable. Obviously this probably wouldn’t work out well in tpvp but I had some success in soloq!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsdWnsISpa2hGGoBzaGB3IM5UzpTnPLZSAA-TZQ5AAQZAA

Essentially it works as a phantasm build but uses them for both offense and defense.

Offense:
- phantasm have 15% more damage and fury. Also bleed on crit. When killed, punishes foes with condis
- decent power, so pretty good damage with bFrenzy

Defense:
- phantasms have more health (50% from signet, 20% from trait) and have retal.
- focus skills reflect projectiles
- sword traited, more uptime of bFrenzy which = more evasion uptime
- vigor on crit
- gain prot when gaining regen
- defensive staff skills such as chaos armor, phase retreat

Team Support and Utility
- phantasm grant perma regen to nearby allies
- Bounti Interruption grants lots of boons, which synergies with Sig of Inspiration to share boons with allies
- glamours traited to keep higher uptime of nullfield for more group condi removal
- chaos storm provides boons to allies and debuffs foes

Still working on runes/sigils/ammy. Originally had knights ammy but celest may be better haha.

On death trait only applies to clones. Except for dueling 25.

Any of you mesmers have this?

Does it change any effects on scepter skills?
I’ve found a video but I’m not sure if it was post patch (legendaries effect revamp)

skcamow.3527:

MSFone.3026:

I think the whole bouncing projectile thing needs to go, given how slow it is and how illusionary elasticity doesn’t work on illusions. If it’s going to be homing why not just have it hit instantly, like GS clones etc? For the “but no counter play!” crowd just put a big attack animation on it. It can take as long as you want to cast the attack, but once it does it hits unless dodged (no walking out of the way).

IE works on the iMage, just not staff clones casting WoC (not sure if that’s what you meant).

I think it only works on the retal part, single-2 targets anyway.

Me Games Ma.8426:

PvP
We Mesmers definetly are able to stack confusion quite high. The problem is that these stacks won’t last long enough to kill people (that’s because of -50% dmg nerf) it WAS possible for mesmers to oneshot people with confusion dealing almost 5k damage per hit.
If anet wants to make a confusion mesmer viable we should get a buff in damage OR duration. Both would be good good too but maybe over powered.

I agree somewhat that we are able to stack confusion quite high, but all the methods we have are unreliable

EX: Scept 3 = 5 stacks BUT all the channeling part has to hit,
iMage =no comment on this one, unreliable too slow to catch on moving targets
Shatter confusion = have to have 3 clones out for max stacks for f2 (with the trait again on illusions 5)
Glamour traits are meh now. 2 stacks on an enchantment

Total: Ideal situation 14 stacks with full 3 clone f2 shatter=3 skills

Now look at the Engineer (Just for comparison)

Pry bar is instant 5 stacks
With perplexity runes = interrupt pull plus prybar = 10 stacks instant.
Total of 2 skill + rune, effortless

I would totally agree with you if duelist has that 100% finisher + chaos storm, null field, feedback combo as before.

So in short the problem is that The application could be high if the process is RELIABLE. and I agree with your point the duration is too short for it even to matter.

Veruah.5302:

StickerHappy.8052:

@OP

At the confusion application part I agree with you.

Ill give you one example.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Distracting_Strikes

4 stacks every interrupt. 9 stacks with perplexity every ICD.

Shouldve been a mesmer trait IMO.

What the…? I’ve never played a warrior and had no idea this existed. This is such a mesmer trait, even down to the name, that I wonder if somewhere during development a spreadsheet got mixed up or something and they’ve just never caught it.

I mean, does a warrior even have another non-rune set way of applying confusion? This seems really, really out of place for a warrior but would make an interesting trait to build around for a condition interrupt mesmer build.

I said this on my previous thread. Our Confusing combatants (dueling 25) should be Confusion on interrupt plus confusion on death. Confusion on death for GM minor trait is so underwhelming. 25 pts just for that?

EDIT: 25 pts for 1 stack of confusion. What?? Warriors have theirs at master major so you could swap it out for diversity, costs 5 pts less. and No ICD, thats what the tooltip says anyway. for 4 STACKS for 8 SECONDS! VS OURS 1 STACK for 3 SECONDS! WHAAT??

@OP

At the confusion application part I agree with you.

Ill give you one example.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Distracting_Strikes

4 stacks every interrupt. 9 stacks with perplexity every ICD.

Shouldve been a mesmer trait IMO.

Next

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Concussion_Bomb
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Confusing_Speech
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pry_Bar
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Static_Shot

Ideal situation = 15 stacks of confusion. No perplexity.

US:

Confusion shatter = 4 stacks with 3 clones + IP (f1,f3)
CoF (8 stacks with IP and 3 clones) assuming your traited at the illusion line, untraited (3 stacks)
Scepter 3 = 5 stacks assuming all hits go through the channel
Image – 3 stacks on bounce, unreliable, IE only affects retal bounce. I reach 6 stacks of confusion on 2 bounces sometimes.

Glamour traits.
All master traits, 1 Enchantment 2 stacks = Enter/Exit, Blinding Beffudlement (matser trait with 5 sec ICD)

In short, we have a harder way to apply them although there are numerous sources.

This is a kittened question but how do you do the flip jump on the video? is it sylvari specific? haha. and Chaos why do you keep jumping? :p

Ohh euca, i believe you now. Thought you played ranger haha.

ugghhh these threads again…

No PU of course, never have and never will. But Im not interested on the bounty, just the experience. bec. you will own me for sure.

@Warlord

By any chance, what build are you using? I’m just curious. Anyway It’s on

Fay.2357:

StickerHappy.8052:

Fay.2357:

So note that I’m not trying to disparage your play with this analysis.

I watched to the 5 minute mark of ‘Washing up baddies’. Though it was a bit difficult to tell at times due to potato resolution, at 5 minutes you had:

• Used your signet 2 times in total
• Managed a total of ~5 interrupts

This means you got 1 interrupt per minute, and many fights you didn’t get any interrupts at all. This right here is why I absolutely despise interrupts. Even in a build built around interrupts, with a player that loves playing interrupt builds and is good at them, you’re only able to get 1 interrupt per minute.

For anything larger than a 1v1/2v2, Interrupts. Do. Not. Work.

Edit: In the duel against the thief on Khylo, you got 1 interrupt the entire fight. You got a couple more in the second duel though.

Edit: Watched the ‘Bitter Defeat’ video. You got 11 interrupts, so just a hair over 1 per minute, and you used the signet 3 times + 1 time with no teammates in range. It just doesn’t work. You’re winning matches through pure shatter damage and playstyle, not through boon-sharing and definitely not because of interrupts.

Out of due respect pyro, with the matter of interrupts and its aspects you mentioned, are you just talking about this build or interrupts in general?

I’m talking interrupts in general.

This build has staff, focus, and diversion. The only other interrupts you could squeeze out would be imbued diversion and the mantra. Imbued diversion has problems with an interrupt build cause of the x/x/30/x/30 issue and DE, and the mantra is pretty much a dueling utility, not a team fight one. What I’m getting at is that this build more or less is the limit of mesmer aoe interrupt capability.

Despite that, it’s entirely unable to be useful with interrupts. Maybe if every single one of that 1 interrupt per minute was a clutch heal interrupt…but it wasn’t. In fact it was the opposite way. Many of those interrupts were just incidental interrupts from chaos storm or temporal curtain that did nothing more than stop a random attack and apply a short immob.

Now, interrupts in a dueling scenario can be very different. You don’t have random stability everywhere, you don’t have massive amounts of skill spam cluttering the screen, you don’t have surprise blinds blocking your skills. You can actually target and time your interrupts to make them work. This is why your phantasm interrupt build was actually highly effective, because it combined the single target nature of phantasms with skillful use of the single target nature mechanic of interrupts.

When you try to take that and expand it to a group though, it just doesn’t work. You can’t really see anything but the most obvious animations, and with the proliferation of asurans, you sometimes can’t even really see those. This means that you’re limited to just throwing out aoe interrupts and hoping they do something…and they generally don’t.

Ahh. I get what you mean pyro. But what if the scenario’s like this:

Yes, group fight, I am running at interrupt build but my role is to shutdown one player, would it still be related to what you’re saying about interrupts? I mean for the boonshare yeah I get your point, but for shutting someone down, it is a different case right? since you only focus on 1 target?

Veruah.5302:

skcamow.3527:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

-snip-

Embrace debate!

On daze duration – as I originally reported in a thread and frifox further validated, currently the daze duration extension by CS is bugged in a few skills:

• Does not increase duration of Mantra of Distraction, Diversion, and Chaos Storm dazes yet does increase daze duration of Counter Blade, which has same base duration as the other 3.
• Increases daze duration of both Magic Bullet and Counter Blade by 58%, not 25% as tooltip suggests.

Wow, really? I had no idea the trait was bugged so badly. I did feel that my 3 illusion Diversion shatters felt a little weak sometimes, but I just figured the opponents had condition duration decreasing runes/traits on them or something.

But diversion’s strength does not lie in the daze duration, it lies on clone positioning.

skcamow.3527:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

-snip-

Embrace debate!

On daze duration – as I originally reported in a thread and frifox further validated, currently the daze duration extension by CS is bugged in a few skills:

• Does not increase duration of Mantra of Distraction, Diversion, and Chaos Storm dazes yet does increase daze duration of Counter Blade, which has same base duration as the other 3.
• Increases daze duration of both Magic Bullet and Counter Blade by 58%, not 25% as tooltip suggests.

The counter blade daze would certainly contribute to what you’re experiencing in a bugged daze extension. I suppose though that if Anet fixes these bugs, it would closely even out. So you’re looking at a maximum of 1.5 seconds dazes from counter blade and MoD. So with that chain you’ll be looking at a potential chain lockdown of 6 seconds (spread out a bit due to MoD cooldown).

Now with CI, if you take traveler’s runes with 30% condition duration, only one of those interrupts nets a 2.5 second immobilize. You can chain that same exact scenario for a potential 10 seconds with less adverse affect from MoD’s internal cooldown. When you add the potential blinds/chills, they’re wrecked.

Keep in mind you’re blowing all your lockdown cooldowns as well with this rotation which is generally OK for 1v1, but something to consider. The point there is that you can inflict similar havoc with almost half as much skill expenditure using CI. And this is only in PvP.

In WvW, CI wins with no contest due to the ability to extend condition duration. With CS, you can’t extend daze duration anymore than you can in PvP. Getting 100% condition duration is not difficult (see stickerhappy’s thread), so even if someone is running lemongrass poulty food, you’ve still got 60% condition duration, doubling what you have in PvP, worst case.

A final note, taking racial skills out of consideration – with CS you have a maximum of three lockdown sources across most weapon sets except a couple that have to involve staff and sword or pistol OH. With CI you can have up to four across all weapon sets, and if you for some reason took nightmare runes or mirror of anguish, you could potentially have six.

Uhmm skcamow, do you think that CI in its current state, I mean you can only get the most out of it in WvW because of the condi-duration food? And have you tried perplexity with it?

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

(… And I can’t fully quit until I can beat Warlord of Chaos in 3 duels straight. =/)

Maybe if you used GS more youd have a better shot at beating me. I keep telling you to use gs staff lol. Try it out sometime and then try to move to s/f gs. You wont regret it as I’ve gotten banned from multiple dueling servers playing s/f gs CI mes lol. (Mesmer OP tears are really refreshing to hear these days ya know)

I’ve heard from you chaos that you’re really good at lockdown, care to post some videos? Let’s play sometime bro!

Fay.2357:

So note that I’m not trying to disparage your play with this analysis.

I watched to the 5 minute mark of ‘Washing up baddies’. Though it was a bit difficult to tell at times due to potato resolution, at 5 minutes you had:

• Used your signet 2 times in total
• Managed a total of ~5 interrupts

This means you got 1 interrupt per minute, and many fights you didn’t get any interrupts at all. This right here is why I absolutely despise interrupts. Even in a build built around interrupts, with a player that loves playing interrupt builds and is good at them, you’re only able to get 1 interrupt per minute.

For anything larger than a 1v1/2v2, Interrupts. Do. Not. Work.

Edit: In the duel against the thief on Khylo, you got 1 interrupt the entire fight. You got a couple more in the second duel though.

Edit: Watched the ‘Bitter Defeat’ video. You got 11 interrupts, so just a hair over 1 per minute, and you used the signet 3 times + 1 time with no teammates in range. It just doesn’t work. You’re winning matches through pure shatter damage and playstyle, not through boon-sharing and definitely not because of interrupts.

Out of due respect pyro, with the matter of interrupts and its aspects you mentioned, are you just talking about this build or interrupts in general?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

They didn’t make the cut. =[ While it was fun to run around owning people it was a bit toooo easy, and not enough demonstration of the boonsharing technique. But next time I’m on and you’re around I’ll send ya a message so we can get some dual lockdown gameplay in. I’ll go Confounding you go Chaotic? =P

@skcamow: Thanks dude!

Can you just post it for the heck of it? and what do you mean by tooo easy? That sounds good chaos ill use CI for sure!

How about our videos chaos?

umm chaos, I am having a big debate on Pistol and Sword OH, As youve said the daze on sowrd 4 is on a lower cd so i can abuse it much more, but at the same time, sword phant only delivers 1 hit, making it easier to dodge.

BUT, If i take 6/2/6/0/0 I would not get sharper images making the Iduelist Xhits useless right? So.. whattya think. Im really torn atm.

derbaer.1284:

Thanks for the build, Sticker, Ill give it a try for sure!

What I will do is to swap crippling dissipation (Dom V) for menders purity (Insp IV).
With pistol 5/staff 5/CI you have so many disabling abilities, that you wont really need another cripple imho.
Menders purity, on the other hand, will be great with the heal mantra+harmonious mantras. Your condition cleanse will be awesome in combination with mantra of resolve-or you could even try to change MoR for another utility, like decoy.

Just my 2pc.

You can do whatever you want with the build as long as the concept stays the same. As I’ve said, play it for fun, no need for technicalities. You have a good point with Dom V. But I use the cripple for masking the bleeds and other damaging conditions. You know what you can also replace it to 10 pts in illusions, you can have the confusion shatter and 1 more trait.

@Chaos

What was your experience running lockdown without DE and Sharper Images? I am just curious, I want to try CI+Power Block.

Oooooohhh! I can’t wait fore that guide!

Fay.2357:

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

I think cele is better tbh since you have so much might generation.

I’d have to greatly disagree here. The only might generation this build has is bountiful interruption, hardly ‘so much’ might generation. It doesn’t have any sort of might duration runes either. In order for celestial to work, you need to be maintaining 15-20 stacks of might at all times in a fight. This build will spike maybe 10-15 at the most, and be at 0-5 for the majority of the time.

Overall, this build relies an enormous amount on interrupts for its defense. This means you’re going to get dismantled by things like thieves and engies. It’ll probably work pretty well against rangers/necros, but then since you have 0 sources of boon strip, anyone that can get stability uptime is going to be hard for you to deal with as well.

The way I see a lot of fights going is that you’ll be pretty solid until your mantras run out, and then you’ll get absolutely ripped apart. Your only condition removal is in a mantra, your aoe burn and healing is a mantra, your main interrupt is in a mantra, and if you try to recharge any of them, you don’t really have any way to protect it. There’s really nothing stopping someone from just killing you during the time you have sit there recharging all your mantras. If you’re able to take someone out first, then fantastic…but if not you’re gonna be in a bad situation.

Thats a very good point pyro. But the state of mantra we have right now is..you know.
But again, Just switch out the healing mantra with EF or Mirror then swap undead/krait runes. For the boons believe it or not, I usually just wait out stability.

But but but.. the main dmg comes from the conditions I only use the interrupts for interrupts. For the cleanse mantra thats the only condi cleanse reliable enough to get, I could get Mender’s Purity but it will be the same scenario for a mantra heal. Torch OH trait is at Master Tier too.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

I think cele is better tbh since you have so much might generation. But honestly I cant really say much about the build except it has way too many mantras lol. I would prob replace the condi cleanse mantra for something like decoy to recharge mantras easier. I will gladly try this build out tomorrow

Please do. You can also have mirror for a reliable heal. Just swap blink for decoy. And, i cant remove cleanse mantra, now I cant live without it.

First off, this build is still experimental so feel free to critique it if you like, although I had very good success with it.

Second, Allow me to give credit to the people who gave me input and inspiration with this build. To whoever made the original clone spam build, I thank you. And Skcamow! for giving very good input.

This is a combination of the clone spam build, a bit of Sckamow’s Chaotic Perdition build my favorite CI trait. and a little bit of Napalm Cat for the runes.

The build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW7al0npGtFpxMNcrNSpxY6cmZHSFQpPp8GA-TZRHwADeAAV2fIZZAAHEABXBAA

Clone spam condition application + Plus Phantasm bleeds. if you’re lucky that’s already 15+ stack 20 stacks from weapon swap (If you have geomancy), *the stacks *are just an estimate since chaos V is RNG.

For sure enemy will cleanse, but its constant Cripple bleed poison torment confusion + Immo, chill or blind on Interrupts
3 charges on interrupts too.
+ Burning from staff clones
+Burning on Heal
+Torment on Block

In WvW, you can substitute Balthazar for Perplexity if you’re good at timing interrupts but just for preference

Pros:

High condition application
Typical interrupt risk/reward
Bountiful Interruption synergizes with Condition damage too. 2 interrupts is already 10 stacks of might. Benefits illusions too.

Cons:

Interrupting need a lot of practice and good timing
Low power.
Mantra Heal (Rune 6 is tied with your heal) I usually go undead or krait but balth runes are so much fun.

PS: I do you use Celestial Amulet sometimes because of the ele trait that makes it immune to conditions. You can also swap decoy for blink for additional clone death and drop target.

So yeah. I am having success with it. You should try it for fun!
The cleanses counter conditions but they key is how you time your interrupts.
Hope you like it.

@Veruah

To answer your question, Both CI and CS has their pros as Chaos mentioned but the only downside from CS i have is the trait somewhat contradicts itself.

First, it boosts daze duration but the main use of this trait are the stuns. But when you look at it, Daze Duration does not equal stun duration. Although rune of the mesmer affects the stun duration, the trait does not benefit the stun duration.

In short, (Just an example) You could boost your daze to 5 secs, but when you convert it to a stun it will always be 1 sec.

I talked about this before, it does give you 50/50 chance to convert a daze to a stun , so if you REALLY REALLY get lucky and convert the daze into a stun like let’s say 3 times in a row, where does the daze duration come into play then? especially when you also have Rune of the Mesmer equipped.

I am not saying its a bad trait but IF it was “Convert the duration of your dazes to a stun with the same duration” then it would be an OK for my use. Again, this is only me, chaos’ inputs are a lot more credible since he used this trait more than me.

In the terms of CI I can give you a decent input. CI is really good although a few a points i mentioned on one thread seems otherwise. Just with the Immobilize it self, the trait is a winner. As chaos said, Me and Skcamow’s Phantasmic Interruptions build make CI shine for with 100% condition duration you have 4 sec immo from CI + 4 Sec immo from leap, plus the Stuns (either pistol 5 or SoD), CI is also good with AoE interrupts for you can be rooting everyone you interrupt.

The Immo from CI is 2 sec base Versus 1 sec stun from CS. So being rooted means your phantasms will surely hit that person (unless with blocks or invuln).

That’s my take on it.

I wish other lockdown mesmers share their response and analysis. ( I am looking at you Skcamow! haha. )

Veruah.5302:

These are all points I have been thinking on recently as well (I get bored at work. I promise I have a life).

The Cripple is what makes the least amount of sense to me. Immobilize is just Cripple 2.0 – you get 0 value out of putting both Immobilize and Cripple on the same target. The only benefit I can see here is if the target is immune to Immobilize (is that even a thing a profession can do without also gaining Cripple immunity?) you can still apply some sort of movement hampering condition.

The same sort of thing can be said when comparing Cripple and Chilled. Chill is just straight up, no questions asked, better than Cripple (50% reduction vs. 66% AND cool down increase). If you land Cripple and Immobilize the skill has basically screwed you.

Now, I get it. It’s Chaos. It isn’t supposed to be a for sure bet on what happens – just that something good happens for us. Cool – I actually like that theme for our profession a lot. But as a Grandmaster level trait there should never be a moment where you are disappointed in the effect – all of the possible condis should be the best-in-class offering for their effect (for example, movement speed reduction).

I have been running 4/4/6 lockdown for some time but have recently considered going to 6/4/4 with Power Block.

If I am missing something here, someone please call me out.

Edit: I hate complaining without also offering a possible solution. If they wanted to take the least amount of work route I would say remove Cripple from the possible condis applied and add Weakness. This sticks with the non-damaging, control condition feel of the trait and would still offer value when paired with the immobilize.

But thats the same scenario, you only get the endurance regen decrease on weakness because fumble would be useless if the target is immobilized

MSFone.3026:

I take CI almost entirely for the immob because as you explain the other extra conditions don’t really do anything. Buffing it would be cool, but I think there are other priorities ahead of buffing a pretty solid trait already.

Any suggestion tho?

^ i know. But i doubt it will happen. It would make lockdown stronger by a lot.

Okay first off, im not saying a total rework of the trait, it is a really good trait with the immob and the chill.

But for the blind and the cripple, idk.

Okay blind for 3 secs, so lets assume target has no cleanse, with the duration of 2 sec immob, and they are blinded, i mean they would not get close to you, so after the immob the only use of blind will be 1 sec.

Next, the cripple, same duration as blind, technically you are only getting 1 sec of cripple after the immob.

If you have 30 in dom which gives you 30% condi duration, this only increases the condi by 3/4 secs. 30 in dom would also be unlikely since you will be going 30 in chaos.

The way i see it, the blind and the cripple are only used to mask other condis.

The chill is somewhat okay, it slows cd of skills, but since it on the same duration as immob, it is removed as soon as your target starts moving.

So the chill is only useful when you interrupt someone whose skills are in cd which again is hard to nail since CI is RNG.
Meaning to get the most out of chill is you have to interrupt, pray that target has skills on cd. And for chill to proc. thats 3 unreliable instances.

The only way i can think of is.

Let the 3 condis or any 1 proc after the immob. And lengthen duration. Or retain the immob and put new effects?

I was thinking the effect of power block plus immob. But no icd.

Any suggestions?

@scam

Oh i though it would be a buff to lockdown mesmers! haha.

I didnt watch ready up so is the skill bar the same as a casting time bar?

@boo

Im curious about the blend… Why?

@Calliope

kitten, this is very good work, a lot of questions on my mind. What happened to her? Why did Logan betray her? Why? Where was her power?

You writing style is very detailed, it makes me feel as if I am right there with Vinesta.

10/10 for me. Gj!

Its funny how the anti-armor weight diversity posters are warriors. Just noticed. Can there be a warrior who is open minded and agree with this magnificent idea?

Ario.8964:

Get on a Mesmer because you’re like me and you love the class to death and decide to go pvp for a bit
1st game: Join in and kill people who aren’t expecting you and get a good win and score
2nd game: Still killing a few people who are getting used to you and winning fights despite a few little skill bugs
3rd game: Get killed by most people you beat and experience more bugs, stress level starts rising.
4th game: Get facerolled by everyone in game because none of your skills work properly do to insane bugs and quit to go play on a class that doesn’t do this.

Am I the only one constantly having this issue? It’s not really about getting killed by good players (That can help you learn) it’s about getting killed by players you are better than purely because none of your skills either activate or function the way they are supposed to. Please, let me know if I am not the only victim of this.

Excuse me? Get Facerolled by everyone? Are you kidding me?
I know there are a lot of bugs with this class but to be facerolled by everyone is L2P issue. I am proud of my class and if you are too, pls stop making this statements it makes the mesmer class look bad. The only class that facerolls me most of the time is thief. I mean cmon.

Fay.2357:

StickerHappy.8052:

I’ve been wanting to try PU for a while now. If I ask you pyro what makes PU appealing to take it over CI? I know its obvious its boons but CI is also great and makes the gameplay rewarding due to the timing of interrupts. So would you recommend PU for me then?

They’re very different traits. CI is an offensive interrupt trait, while PU is a self-buffing defense trait. CI is inherently unreliable due to the nature of interrupts themselves being unreliable. Good luck landing interrupts on that thief or engie, and have fun stripping through stability on that asuran warrior just to get to try and figure out what’s a jump, what’s a dodge, and what’s an earth shaker. Interrupts are an inherently unreliable mechanic, and so I stay away from anything that relies on them.

PU always works. It always provides strong defense and doesn’t rely on other mechanics to make it work.

what if I’m really good at interrupting, would PU still be a better choice? I mean I’ve never tried PU that’s why Im curious.

Veruah.5302:

I think we can probably keep mesmer theorycrafting rather civil, ladies and gents.

Anyhow, I have played a little bit with the build I posted above with a few minor alterations between matches. Here’s what I have to report:

1. As stated by Chaos above it really needs crit chance. This is the single largest glaring hole in the build and I am not for sure how to accurately fix it, or if it is even possible. I am open to any suggestions.
2. I actually really like Moa for this. I mostly use it on professions I think will have great condi cleanse and it shuts them down really, really fast. Stacked torment and confusion through scepter skills and a shatter just melt them.
3. You are quite glassy if you try to actually facetank people. Staff offers good mobility and the double block setup can let your survive long enough to get several good condi ticks in, but when the hits actually land they land hard. The mobile nature of the defense in this build made it hard for me to really hold down or capture points vs more than 1 enemy, but if I had a friendly with me I felt like I was a great asset.
4. Trait changes: dropped Compounding Power for longer Confusion duration at times. I don’t really have a strong opinion on if one is clearly better than the other at this time. I also had good success with dropping Deceptive Evasion for Retaliatory Shield. While it goes against almost every build relying on shatters to not have DE, I never really felt like I lacked illusions to feed to my shatters. Whenever an offensive shatter was up in combat I almost always had at least two illusions ready and could easily produce the third with a weapon or utility skill.
5. I tried all of the different heal skills and I think I agree with Chaos – Mantra is not the way to go. The tried and true Ether Feast seems to just be straight up better.

Would love to hear how everyone else’s build is holding up!

Were you using that torment build earlier?

blackbolt.8160:

@inhearth and @Fay

Would not a greatsword do enough damage? Blink and stealth skills can keep the opponent at range, and if they get close, there is blurred frenzy then torch stealth.

I submit that maybe deceptive evasion is necessary. I will give up the improved greatsword for it and use shatter every now and then as extra burst.

As for a phantasm variant, maybe something like this could work:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8clknpRtlpxNNcrRiqhY6anahyupJVgSlB-TVCEAB2t/QUKVSU9HDuIANpsSijAAgKBbT3AAPAASBonyI-w

I’d have to lose the stealth from torch in favor of another phantasm from sword off hand. The reduced illusion summoning minor trait might help but not sure if it will have enough stealth to justify even getting PU anymore…

@StickerHappy

I’m currently running an interrupt build. I have problems with classes that can do so much burst up-front you can’t deal with it if you just interrupt 1-2 skills. Maybe i need to work on my kiting without stealth >_<

Hmm. I don’t feel that in any way. Interrupting is really good, I usually waste all my interrupts at the start of the fight haha. anyway. I just can’t play anymore without CI. That’s why i am torn between trying PU or not.

Kadj.6725:

Right. I’m not too keen on Uraydia’s decision to insult me over a simple suggestion/question, but I did decide to test my rune idea out. The problem is… I am realistically not a good indicator of viability. I’m out of practice, and wasn’t really spectacular in practice besides; I suck at rotations, I press wrong buttons all the time(HAHA EAT STUN… where did I get all this HP from?).

So, with that said: Here’s what counts for me consistently being second “best” on my team across a couple hotjoin maps, as of the last map.

his I was always too slow to trigger it, eating pretty much a full longbow ranger rotation before it even occurred to me. I also felt like something was getting through the blocks too often… Traited necro wells would have been a good contender, but I didn’t see any necros. SO, I switched to Mirror Images, for all the reasons you would normally pick Mirror Images over Mimic.
uild knowing your own weaknesses as a player. I will say that I think I’m starting to pull away from Scepter; 8 stacks of torment seem great and all, but 5 of those stacks are single target, and not necessarily the target you want to hit – The number of Rock Dogs and Parrots I saw affected by Torment left me rather disheartened. I did like the double block+rune, but it’s a tough question whether it was really worth it… and in a non-1v1, there is almost no defense once you blow F4. Mirror Images definitely helped bring in the damage – and for the moment, I still rather like Celestial stats(no need to repeat the other thread’s discussion though, I’ll probably change my tune if I try something else).

Here’s the modified version, as per the above notes(but holding on to Scepter for now):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArcWlknpUtlpxTNcrRSrBZqUg6tcmeSqAUyPUNA-TZhFwAAeAAC3f4wRAIxpAwZZAA

Uhmm. Excuse me, when I was reading his post I wondered why he felt he needed to insult you. /smh

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Frifox! Where art thou!? I need numbers!

Specifically: How much condition damage do you need for respectable damage? 1300? 1500?

@Veruah: That’s an interesting spread, but two things jump out at me. Firstly, Carrior amulet is pretty bad for Mesmer, when traiting either power or condition damage you need precision either way. Secondly, the heal mantra bothers me. I understand the reasoning: Mender’s Purity to cleanse condis, but the actual healing amount is so low that I’m not certain it’s enough sustain.

Other than that, it looks pretty interesting. I made some slight changes mostly around the runes/sigils and I’m almost positive the pistol will outdamage the offhand sword here (as the pistol does both power/condition damage).

With this, the scepter/pistol would be for single targets where the staff, shatters, and mantra heal would dish out AoE damage.

Edit: @Duck that’s a very interesting alternative there and I definitely see potential, but having two mantras could end up being a hindrance in the middle of a fight. Decoy/Mirror Images could work in MoConcentration’s place though.

What’s Dom I for? Im just curious, you dont have a lot of power in the build.

Fay.2357:

@inhearth

Your perception of how condition PU builds optimally play is deeply flawed, but I’ll ignore that for a moment.

Shatter and PU do not mix well. Generally shatter requires one of a couple general setups: IP in illusions or interrupts in chaos. Taking PU means that you can do neither of these things. This results in your shatters being quite weak and unimpactful. Also, delayed shatters due to pathing issues can result in some awkward unstealthing moments.

A phantasm build synergizes somewhat better with a PU build as it doesn’t lose quite as much strength as a shatter build does. You can still pick up a good number of the more important phantasm traits and get your phantasms hitting reasonably hard. That being said, the torch phantasm is horrid and you will be losing both phantasm strength and some phantasm survivability.

Those reasons are why I never run PU power. Condition traits line up beautifully with the standard 20/20/30 of PU, and so you really sacrifice nothing of import in a PU condition build. Aggressive play is still very possible, and even optimal, and it overall has more defense and survivability than a comparable power build.

I’ve been wanting to try PU for a while now. If I ask you pyro what makes PU appealing to take it over CI? I know its obvious its boons but CI is also great and makes the gameplay rewarding due to the timing of interrupts. So would you recommend PU for me then?

Neptune.2570:

StickerHappy.8052:

wait wait wait. Is Neptune = Saturn? :p

If Saturn is a player or person then I’m sorry to dissapoint.
If in fact your making a joke, then im not nearly witty/far too literal to get it…

Oh sorry for the confusion. There’s a mesmer here in the forum named Saturn. (ID) I just found it cool (if you were 2 diff people) that youre named after planets.

wait wait wait. Is Neptune = Saturn? :p

Add more i wanna read more. Haha. You can add traits if you want