Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing this build in sPvP for a while now and it is a heck of a lot of fun. Recently though I started yearning for more DPS/spike and adjusted the build quite a bit into basically a tanky shatter build that still makes use of the Retaliation, which is fairly core to this build of course.

So while the traits have dramatically changed by putting 15 into Domination and 20 into Dueling (Dec. Evasion), the way I play this new build is actually very similar to the old. I just don’t rely as heavily on the fairly long setup-up time of the Retaliation tactic, and am not as dependent on Retaliation for damage overall. I still use the focus trick quite often though and throw up iDefender (w/5 pts in Inspiration of course) and other phantasms and let them get chewed up, but with Deceptive Evasion I can put up a lot more Clones to shatter in between.

Of course I’m still using Soldier runes, but went with Fire & Accuracy sigils to get a 19% base chance to crit. Doing this I dropped to 22k HPs (from ~26k before) and 1725 Toughness, but I don’t feel particularly less tanky then before TBH. I think Deceptive Evasion adds a lot of indirect defense, plus of course a good bit of offense.

Not claiming this is going to work for everyone, or that it’s better then the excellent build from Pyro, but just thought I’d throw it out there that the combination of a slightly more offensive built in combination with a similar play-style as his, also is working out nicely. I have the option to use Retaliation against classes that love multi-hit AoE attacks to clear my illusions while hurting me, but I can also change to a full shatter tactic vs. other opponents and have a good bit more DPS & spike available to me.

One last thing to mention is that I can’t go without Focus anymore. I used to love it, then stopped using it when I went full shatters, and now I fell in love with it again and can’t do without it anymore. ;-)

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Enjoy! ;-)

In sPvP I’m really liking Dolyak with this. Basically you trade Vit for Tough over Pyros setup, but you gain a nice regen to boot.

It’s a really fun build for messing with key-spamming newbs. ;-)

Lovin’ it, thanks again!

AnemoneMeer.7182:

The only class squisher than us can build pure tank and overpower most everyone.

Check out the Immortal Mesmer build, and you won’t think we’re squishy anymore. You can tank with the best of them, and much like the D/D Ele still put a fair bit of pain down on folks, even vs. multiples.

Still, I don’t think the OP’s point has merit, but we’re only as squishy as our build.

Forgot to mention that I chose to go with the extra 10 in Insp. for the heal on shatter to better offset condi damage, as in sPvP the condi clearing is a bit lacking with this build. I’m enjoying the build quite a bit, it’s not a killing machine build, but it certainly is very tanky and I still can hold my own pretty well. (getting better every day ;-) )

I’m going to try to tweak the gear a bit, but overall it’s quite fun and a breath of fresh air from the usual GC shatter builds.

Been playing it in sPvP tonight and I like it. As Macha said, people just don’t expect a Mesmer to be this tanky. Had a blast, and gives old farts like me a lil’ more reaction time.

Thanks!