Guild Wars 2

Chaos Archangel.5071:

The Bicurious Milf… L M A O!

What inspired the name!? I must know.

As for the build, I like the amount of stuns, chills, blinds, ect. packed in, but the one trait that really throws me is “Retaliatory Shield.” You’re not running PU or staff (Aegis) so your only blocks come from the scepter, and that’s not enough to take the trait over Blade Training, Phantasmal Fury, or even Desperate Decoy (or, when Dec 10th hits, Mantra Mastery)

80% condition duration.. Oh man your interrupts must be brutal. One interrupt + iLeap is over 6 second immobilize.

I have 92% duration now. For Retal Shield, that was my mistake, thank you for mentioning it. I use Phantasmal Fury for the bleed stacks,.

You know what for some reason, people tend to panic after the duelist crits them for 7-8 stacks.

For me, the matter of interrupts should be an integral part of the mesmer, even not traited. very few people spend time to master to interrupts. We can use it in any build because we have so many sources for it. I know we see people interrupt others with Chaos storm and the occasional magic bullet. But the question is how much of it are only lucky interrupts?

If one can master interrupting, the mesmer is a seriously kitten powerful class.

I’ve met you in PvP once, i did not know what spec you were using at that time, but the matter of interrupts shows the difference of a great mesmer and a crap one. You were great. That was good playing from you last time. The best one i had in a few.

PS: The name Bicurious shows the dual aspect of the power and condition hybrid. The Milf part i just added because my character is female. lol

skcamow.3527:

As Ironvos mentioned, the biggest disadvantage to using CI is not having enough interrupt sources that aren’t stuns. So, pistol and signet of domination would be part of that. Now, pistol is ok (not great) with CI if you’re up against more than one opponent due to the daze on the bounce, but if using pistol it’s best to have other “on interrupt” abilities built in, such as … ahem … perplexity (bah, I don’t use ’em either).

I’ve been refining a condition build using CI myself for awhile and a 20/20/30 option was something I was seriously considering at one point using torch. The built-in condition management, increased survivability with stealth, being able to take DE … until I finally slapped myself awake and realized that I really wouldn’t do CI much good in that build.

That said, how has it been working for you? My experience has only been in theory.

As for the grenth runes, they are actually very powerful in close quarters. I used them last night actually in a few team pvp matches and they can really debilitate opponents on points especially, where you often find yourself healing within the range of the AoE chill proc. Oh, and a 3 second chill is a long time.

One other thing, why don’t you go with hydromancy on the sw/p set?

I use the stuns not for interrupts but just for the stun lockdown in general. If it interrupts then win-win situation.

I use hydromancy on the sc set because after blur+shatter i switch back to sc.

Torch is really good, As of now. haha if I had another OH option like a new wep i would ditch it. Traiting IX for just one condition removal waste your points for Shattered Concentration, Empowered illsuions, Signet Mastery.

1. I’m okay with the phantasm, but when it stealth the retal it gives you, makes your position in jeopardy, same as the disenchanter. But the stealth is the one reason i use it. Prestige + ileap is very good bec. the enemy will least expect it.

If you time it right its immo+prestige blind+burning+blurred+Shatter+Daze combo burst. Blind=no time to attack back so generally the initial reaction would be dodge or retreat, and that will be a very good time to switch to hydromancy for the chill.

Next, the hydromancy chill would also give you a lot of options: Heal chill or Stun Dom or Pistol 5 or Phanatasm setups or Provoke the enemy then block with scept 2.

I don’t rely on perplexity, too much people use it., rahter good to be different.

And why should interrupt builds center on perplexity?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRArf8al0zKonRToGb9IipHBnvJckUYavWJF42FC-j0CBohDimkGgmOyEIgJfBKHaZs1PFRjVdDT5aR1KYAmbFRrWIgFrBA-w

CC: MoD, SoD, Pistol #5, Diversion, Runes of Grenth, Sigil of Hydromancy, Chaos V
Interrupt Traits: Halting Strike, Chaotic Interruption, Bountiful Interruption, Illusion Of Vulnerability
Cleanse: Torch 4 and Disenchanter

I have 1k condition damage for pressure from SI and other conditions

UPDATED:

112% chill duration and 92%condition duration

Changed sigils of force and bursting to 2x sigils of malice for added condition duration.

Combos: Sod, Duelist, Pistol 5, sword 3, sword 2, diversion/shatter, swap for hydromancy, daze, heal,

Stealth, heal, leap, blurred, any of the interrupts.

6 sec chill for Hydromancy and Heal
4 sec chill with CI
6 sec Chill on Hit

I know its messed up, but I’ve been using only a lockdown build ever since so I’m quite proficient with its mechanics.

Hoping for your creative criticisms,

Thank you

I was planning to put a sigil of ice on my weapons but the CD bet hydromancy are too close so I will only end up using one.

I will be replacing my sigils of bursting with sigil of paralyzation after the transference buff.

It does not suck. Suck is a bad word to use. haha. Scept #2 is good. The only issue I’m having with it is the Auto Attack. I use a Lockdown build and I use a scept. I do not even see how the word suck would be used describe it. I know it has issues but for me, it could certainly have room for improvement.

The main use of scept for me is the clone generation. Scept 3 inflicts confusion stacks it will be better in a condition build. scept 2 is a defensive skill that again scales with condition damage to maximize the torment.

Thank you for the replies.

My final questions.. I apologize in advance if this is common sense..

if you have 130% chilled duration.. how do you calculate it?

Ex. 3 secs chill = 6 secs x.30?

or 3 × 130%?

So meaning to say, for example 6th rune of grenth chills foes for 3 secs. but thats excluding the 2nd rune bonus of +20% chill duration? so its 3 secs + 20% more?

@Pyro. Thank you. but what about this scenario. I have a sigil of Ice on my MH that has a chance to inflict chill. and a sigil that increases chilled duration on my OH. so does the OH sigil increase the duration of the chill effect on my MH?

Is it also similar for armor runes?

Are they affected by your condition duration?

And… I’ve seen a lot of posts where they say phantasms don’t proc on crit sigils.

But,, there are numerous times that my izerker proc sigil of fire and other sigils.

Depends on the build.

Mother of god….

@paleeshi

I bet i can lockdown the shatter build.

I have great success using an interrupt build in pvp. do you think it will be the same WvW?

@Carighan

A minor for 25 points? 5% is not worth because given the time the player is inactive = (not using skills) is simply too short. When does this happen? 1 sec daze? stun? unless you are in a party that’s the only time you can maximize its use. But then again its too situational. I bet you wouldn’t even notice that 5% if it procced or not.

@Chaos

Exactly. 5 points at the max. Why not combine halting strike and the current trait? too OP?

Use clestial helm for the 3% crit damage lol;

@Chaos

How come you play so good?

@ Qaelyn

1 vs 1 lockout is very good. It does not mean PU is inferior but maybe your opponent that time is really good in a sense of predicting your actions as to when to interrupt you.

How does DE feel in your interrupt build? I’ve never used it in an interrupt build.

For real? No one? I guess no one goes that deep into dom.

I’ve said this before on other posts but i think 5% is very underwhelming for GM minor trait. I always take dom 30 for the CS trait but i think 5 points is still 5 points.

Heck, sigil of impact gives 10% damage. For going that deep in a tree, they might as well make the rewards reasonable.

What improvements could it have? Or just change it in general? Like torment on interrupt. lol.

@Mystic.

Pretty nice. so does it have a purple fire glow too?

@Topic

I saw a backpiece called Desert Rose. It has some fireflies/petals flying on your back as its animation. I think it would suit the mesmer butterfly theme but the rose itself is red. I wish we could dye it purple somehow

Ohh. Since the the skin is rare.. can you put it on exotic items?

Oh wow! Thank you guys.!

@pyro TA torch looks nice. I think I’ll go with it.

Lastly, Any ideas for a backpiece that will suit the mesmer’s color theme?

I wanted the Lightning catcher one but i missed out on the event.

anything close for the torch?

IS there a skin for torch and sword that resembles illusionary weapons?

^then good for you.

Ross Biddle.2367:

StickerHappy.8052:

Dude honestly i have the same problem, I use a condition build but before i finish them off they either cleanse the conditions or run away. haha.

You guys are just trying to live at each end of the dps spectrum. To do that you’re giving up what’s needed to actually win the fight (though in the case of the poor shatter zerker it’d mean traiting entirely into the wrong tree). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, mobility is king. All builds should start with mobility. Why do you think Traveller runes have become so popular? It’s not 60g for a full set because people like the pretty picture on the runes.

I for one haven’t tried traveler runes yet. But is it worth it to sacrifice other stat points from other runes for the mov speed?

Dude honestly i have the same problem, I use a condition build but before i finish them off they either cleanse the conditions or run away. haha.

Pyroatheist.9031:

1. wiki.guildwars2.com
2. There is no cap like that.
3. Same as before what exactly?

Our clones did 1/4 of our damage before in beta if i remember correctly

1.) How much condition damage am I supposed to have to have my bleeds tick at 125?

2.) Is there a condition damage cap? I mean is there any point of getting 1600 condition damage or is there a point where the gains are not worth it anymore to go past a certain condition damage stat?

3.) What are your opinions if the mesmer is still the same as before? (our clones did damage-wise) would you guys think it would put the mesmer in a better position it is right now considering all the bugs and the weapon rebalancing needed?

@all

Honestly i feel like a daze on the skills (not all) or bleeding on the MH pistol would most fit it. A little torment would be nice coz we lack torment sources except Scept 2 and runes and sigils.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Xaylin: That stun ruins people’s lives. What makes it so good is that the enemy can’t dodge whereas they can dodge dazes. Also, consider Diversion. A 3-clone shatter will more-often-than-not proc a stun, leave them with 20 stacks of vulnerability, and completely at the mercy of you AND your team. If that 3 clone shatter was only a daze, they could still run away and dodge attacks despite the Vuln. But to be fair there are a lot of similar situations where CI would also leave the opponents similarly screwed.

Hm, true, maybe making skills take around 50-65% longer to recharge would be a bit less OP. =P

Sticker: But in either case it’s good RNG. Confounding in it’s current state simply converts dazes into stuns and you could make the argument that this demeans the effects of Runes of the Mesmer. Now it’ll give you a benefit to dazes with the potential to improve the daze effect by turning it into a slightly shorter-duration stun. The difference is only a matter of a fraction of a second, which yeah is definitely noticeable in a fast-paced game like this, but not so profound that you’re being cheated out of your daze duration.

And consider the fact that most of our dazes can hit multiple targets. (Sword 4 pierces, Diversion can be traited OR clones can be placed on different opponents OR hit the same opponent at staggered intervals for a stronger effect. The only strictly single-target daze is Mantra.) so there’s always a chance you’ll daze one guy and stun the next.

Oh, as a funny aside, I dropped Chaos Storm on someone yesterday and of the 6 times it hits it dazed them once and stunned them twice. Was glorious.

Maybe your’re right I’ve never thought of it that way. How about Wastrel’s Punishment? I feel its a bit lackluster for a GM minor trait.

@Xaylin

I Agree with you that CS and CI are somewhat redundant it indirectly gives the same results (Chill + Immo = Stun/Daze somewhat) with a little bit of effort (interrupt) hmm,

Chaos Archangel.5071:

I look at it from a slightly different perspective, and granted it could be because of how much time I sunk into playing Mind Crush but…

What it comes down to is the question of if the 1s stun is better than the 1.6 second daze; and I feel the answer is yes. Thus its not that the stun proc dumps on all the daze investment, its that the trait gives you a potential better outcome than your gear investment.

In my experience, before the most recent Sigil of Paralyzation patch, we already had what Confounding Suggestions is about to be… Dazes lasted near 2 seconds with the potential of a stun (granted, the stun lasted 2 seconds too x_x). That 2s daze is going to be fantastic, and even now I very rarely have a problem capitalizing on the stun since I use it mostly for catching runners, setting up iLeap, or escaping crap situations. Part of the reason is that Sigil of Paralyzation’s +15% stun duration gives me more reaction time. (And I think my build may be the only build currently making decent use of Furious Interruption. Stun + Quickness = Profit )

At the same time though, have you guys played around with Confounding Suggestions much? Cuz I haven’t played with Chaotic Interruption for any extended period of time. Maybe we should try eachothers’ builds out this weekend and see if our perspectives change. =P

Edit: Wastrel’s Punishment should be changed into something like: “Interrupted Skills take twice as long to recharge” (10s rather than 5)

Ive been a loyal fan of Mind Crush build ever since and I use it as my main build. The only difference I have is i focus on con dmg rather than power. Chaotic Interruption and CS are somewhat similar and they are both RNG. CI is only good when you interrupt a target which requires practice. Although CS has RNG stuns it will still proc a daze whether you interrupt a for or not. So in a sense its a win win situation for you.

The Only thing i am saying is that why put %daze duration on it if its stuns will only be 1s? I know stun is better, but due to the fact that it is RNG, you wouldn’t really know if the daze duration will benefit you if you get lucky and proc stuns most of the time. I mean what if it procced 8/10 times, (lets say you’re that lucky) so the daze duration would then benefited you 2/10 of the time. But at the same time it situation could reverse, you may get unlucky with the stuns but you would then benefit on the daze duration. so the RNG before would even be more RNG now.

@Xaylin

You know what, I tried CS in pvp and its kittenin good at its current state. but i feel that its not worth it to go 30 points deep into the dom tree. Wastrel’s Punishment on the Other hand, 5% is too dam low for a GM minor heck the Sup Sigil of Impact can do 10% damage on stunned foes. What i I think is Put Wastrels Punishment on sigil of Dom as a Passive and increase it by 10%. And Put a new GM minor trait that has something to with interrupts or chance to proc torment or daze.

CS might be better if it was stun duration + maybe 60% – 70% change dazes to stun, we have multitude of applying dazes already. At the same time can someone explain to me. How will CS work with daze duration? So the daze duration will only be worth it if CS does not proc. Mesmer rune + CS daze duration is almost 2s daze then RNG will change it to a stun of 1s. Personally 2s daze is better coz you hold off an enemy longer. Stun is nice because bec of the better cc effect than daze, but trading 2-3s of daze to a 1 sec stun IMO is not worth it. It seems like the skill effect contradicts itself.

@Chaos

So the new CS how will it work? So with rune of the mes has 33% daze duration + 25% from CS so that’s longer than 1s daze, but it will turn 50% of the time to a 1 sec stun. So by itself it defeats it purpose if it procs all the time. In short the increased daze duration would only benefit you if CS does not proc?

First of all, I did not create this thread to start a flame war or bash anyone’s opinions. But whenever i browse the forums, there is this one guy who posts about his/her condition build at PvE, and majority of the responses is Condition builds suck/not good/whatever term at PvE. Well Imo, It doesn’t suck, it just does not kill as fast as a power build.

Ever since I found Chaos’ and skcamow’s Interrupt builds, ive enjoyed them so much, call me weird but i use them at PvE and incorporate condtion damage on it with full condition gear. Don’t get me wrong i went power based builds before (shatter/phantasms) but they all feel so linear to me. The story is all about dmg. Whereas condition builds take more i don’t know how to say it but it feels more engaging in a sense. So im just wondering is the mesmer really inferior to the condition side of things? or is the inferiority often just exaggerated? or just a majority of people conform with the Berserker setup without having tried other builds/setups before?

Im saying this because i see the berserker power setup responses from other forums too.

Again guys, Sorry if I happen to offend any of you but, IMO mesmers just do some of the things (if not almost) that other classes can do better. It’s not just really straightforward but the gameplay is really rewarding.

IGN: Goodbye Goodnight
Server: Gates of Madness (NA)
Playstyle: mostly interested in WvW. Been trying to build an interrupt/condition based build.
Role: Scholar
Playtimes: Everyday at night time.

The change to confounding suggestions is kittened 50% to a RNG stun is not even worth to be a GM trait, Master trait atleast, and now they’re changing it to just daze duration? who will trait 30 points into domination just for getting a daze duration for for a GM trait? /smh

@Alissah or Chaos

Do 2 sigils of paralyzation stack? coz thats what you have on your link

Chaos, I really loved your builds and inspired me to build my own lockdown builds. But since PU builds are really something nowadays, i was wondering if you can meld a PU build into an interrupt/lockdown build?

Thank you kind sir.

hi guys i am planning to save up for rabid armor set, but i discovered that to get a set you have to do dungeons or use karma (which costs a lot of karma). I went looking around and found the Khilborn Set on the TP. My question to you guys is i noticed that the armor comes with a lich rune on it. By any chance can you put another rune on it and overwrite the effects of the lich rune?

Pyroatheist.9031:

So there’s a good bit of misinformation floating around here regarding damage.

Halting strike has a set damage calculation. It ignores your weapon strength, and simply uses an internal modifier. This does not change ever. The method of getting the interrupt has no effect on the actual damage. This is true whether the interrupt was from chaos storm or from the mantra.

That mechanic is why the damage on it is so low, and so unrewarding in an offensive build.

Then it would make sense to use full condition gear? The halting strike damage will just be considered as an extra one tick condition because the damage is “low” (low = insert number here) instead of using it as an ideal considerable source of damage?

i wanted to pick halting strike because it would synergize better to a mainly (not pure) interrupt build. so just wanted to know some clarifications. Some skill scalings in game are too odd just to figure it out instinctively. hmmpf. Anet.

I loved your vid. Just a question how the f does your swordsman hit for almost 6k?

Very nice suggestions sirs.. I think Imma go power build. You know what? the confounding suggestions trait seems really tempting if we only had 10 more skill points

Xaylin.1860:

blutstein.2468:

you can take a look at my thread (link in signature), its a lockdown clonespam build with some explanations

Xaylin.1860:

Don’t go for power AND condition damage when running your build with Staff/Sword+Pistol. Staff might be an condition weapon at heart but it is a very defensive weapon. The condition damage coming from a Staff is not that strong and neither Sword nor Pistol would benefit. Focus on power, precision (crit chance) and critical damage while maintaining a level of vitality and toughness you feel comfortable with.

this simply isn’t true, hybrid works perfect, maybe not for every phantasm build but in general it works.
Especially if you take a look at the weapon skills, most of them favor hybrid dmg (Scepter, Staff, Torch). The Pistol to, magic bullet applies conditions and the channel of the phantasm stacks some nice bleeds if your critchance is good. On top of that can you combo chaosstorm – duelist. Even with fix its strong.

you don’t really get much out of Interrupt skills with a phantasm build imho.

Err… I’m afraid you misread some stuff.

Only BlackDevil mentioned Phantasms. Besides that, we were talking about interrupt builds. We also were discussing a very specific weapon set (Staff / Sword + Pistol). Therefore, you unfortunately took my post out of its context.

Although, going hybrid (power + condition damage) might work for some builds it certainly isn’t favourable for the build above. Staff is improved by adding condition damage, yes. You don’t take the Staff for damage, though. Sword is not improved at all. And neither is Pistol. The conditions on Pistol (Magic Bullet) don’t really deal any damage. The only thing you could go for is condition duration (blind) which doesn’t make a lot of sense. The daze and the stun can’t be improved by a lot since Anet nerfed the sigil of paralyzation.

The iDuellist indeed is a source of conditions (bleeds and conditions when using combos). Since they fixed the combo chance the iDuellist by no means is sufficient as sole condition damage source. You will want perplexity runes and possibly switch out the Sword for a Scepter just like you do in your own build. In the set up above, conditions are more a supplement rather than a main damage source. Therefore, power and precision are way more important.

This discussion actually leads to a core flaw of the Mesmer class. Their conditions. Staff does not scale that well with condition damage. I guess that is okay because it is a defensive weapon. But neither does Torch (Prestige). You will gain the most damage by increasing the condition duration for your burn instead. Test it yourself. Prestige with an additional second burn in a power build will deal the same damage as in a condition build without the additional second. That is one of the main reasons why Mesmers are pretty bad at running condition builds. Their conditions are too short and the applied stacks are very small.

Not saying Mesmers can’t successfully run condition builds. The Scepter actually has been improved a lot and conditions are nice when combined with PU. But in general our conditions are inferior when compared to those of the other classes besides maybe the Guardian.

So the best rune to use for an interrupt setup is perplexity? Most of its stats give condition damage too. I was wondering should i go for all zerker set for an interrupt build or condition damage and condition duration would be better because i am using chaotic interruption?

So which damage should you rely on? Having shatters as your main source of damage, it wouldnt make any difference for a shatter mesmer? Yes it would use interrupts on the side but the main playstyle would still revolve around shattering then? I mean no offense sir.

Hmmm. so in short.. an interrupt mesmer isnt viable at this point of time? I played almost all of the blackout/interrupt builds in spvp, its a lot of fun because its not the conventional phantasm/shatter playstyle. So the dmg of halting strike as of now is RNG?