Guild Wars 2

Dobie … you didn’t read the whole thread did you?

You … just forgot my last point. You spend 4 in illusions, compared it to 3 in dominon. My last point goes into inspiration for another 15% dmg for phants, call it 7% wich is 14% total = 4% more than traiting into illusions according to your calculations. So you confirmed me that 5/4/0/5/0 has more damage than 2/4/0/4.5/4.5?

The signet thing has it’s ups and downs. You say “signet 20% cdr is irrelevant, fights don’t last long enough”. That’s exactly the point. In some situations (hate me for the following sentence if you want to but it’s true >.<) the GS became a superior weapon for me again:

• In many parts of the game you face multiple enemies, also in dungeons, where you stack etc. I start with GS 2, 4 signet 4, swap, boonshare, warden, aa. Before I can swap again the encounter is over, no attack, nor any iDuellist / iSwordsmen would have dealt more damage in that case. I never use the downside of the GS (1) and it grants me tons of might wich is with signet of battle ~12 stacks wich i share and increase party dps from the beginning. The signet trait now doesn’t help me to use the signets again in the same battle, no, but they are ready again in the next! And this makes the trait so worth.
• If it’s a longer fight it extremly depends on the enemies abilies to destroy your illusions. I think phantasmal haste is superior for no-kill-potential bosses, the cdr on summoning them is good if the enemy has that feared kill-potential. The signet simply grants every 28 sec another phantasm, wich also allows a 100% reflection uptime right at the beginning (warden, warden, curtain, feedback, warden → triple warden 100%) if required. I wouldn’t say the signet is stronger than PH / IC. They are both pretty situational and also pretty even. But if I had to choose between signet or PH and IC, I’d take the second one. But since they don’t come alone with that tradeoff, I think 5/4/0/5/0 is better.

Thx for arguing btw, I really like to talk with you where others definitly would “fight” with the desire to be right instead to find the truth.

greez

Pretty sure it’s the event there, where you have to test the rifle.

vulnerability and retaliation aren’t hybrid stats …

Agreed. Engi downstate is by far the worst in the game.
1 needs more damage
2 is ok like this
3 needs much more devastating damage
4 ofc ok

The damage you recive with condition damage is lower than the damage you loose from not building power. You’d better go full zerk tbh. More dmg = faster ks = less hits taken = less def required.

Btw just use pistol 3 (or 2 if you got a quip), since all other pistol skills aren’t worth using.

tigirius.9014:

There’s only one thing I used that build for and that was events in Orr. It’s great to tag all those mobs.

If you use SD for tagging as an engineer, … god I’m speechless after reading that …

1 Rune: +25 power
2 Runes: +25 power + 10% might dura
3 Runes: +75 power + 10% might dura
4 Runes: +75 power + 20% might dura
5 Runes: +175 power +20% might dura
6 Runes: +175 power +20% might dura +bonus effect

for example. each rune adds new stats, it’s not a total.

Still stacking 15 sec invisibility without a problem …

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Xyonon.3987:

Bombs also have a larger radius. In the end the damage is pretty even, however grenades toolbelt aswell 2 and 4 are pretty bursty, and 4 adds some good cc wich bombs don’t have without a sacrifice of damage. In the end Mork vom Ork is totally right. Allways pick both. You DO NOT want to use grenades 1. But 2-4 are too good and 5 is sometimes too pretty strong since it stacks up rapid and is a good dps boost against bosses and regen (like cof 1).

The funny sentence up there “elixier gun is useless”. Heh – I smiled

Uh you do want to use Grenades primary, it’s 3 stacks of vuln per toss and one of the overall highest attack speed weapons in the game, meaning you get loads of every proc ever.

Bombs primary is slightly more damage per hit but you’re losing vuln and also setting yourself up for some major headache if your plan is to keep switching between bombs and grenades constantly every time Shrapnel comes off CD.

Bombs and grenades have the same attack speed Often engineers seem to think that they are the only ones who can stack vulnerability… Everyone can and if you keep an eye on the vuln stacks you can decide if you wanna deal more damage or more vuln. To be honest – in the end it won’t matter that much. Bombs are just greater if you are surrounded by enemies and grenades if they stack.

To keep switching between bombs n nades doesn’t give me headache, more the opposite! I love it! I really enjoy that fast swapping, to keepup sigil of battle and just for more efficiency. Engi has such a high skillcap and I really love it.

About the elixier gun:

The elixier gun is a superior weapon but the only skills you want to use are 3-5 and rarely 2 just for the looks
Fumigate (3) is one of the best group condi cleanser with almost 0 cd and great range. JUST DO NOT USE AUTO TARGET – pain in the kitten :P
Skill 4 has one of the highest damage of our skills aswell a neat combo finisher. Fire bomb, glue bomb, followed by this is a great buff for the pt since both, bomb and EG4 have almost 0 cd, aswell the damage of it is just legendary. You need 1 sec to set up this field, interrupt yourself with a weaponswap so you cancel the knockback and the time you require for that skill vs the damage it deals = outdamages 100b against 3-5 targets.
Skill 5 is simply a good heal, nothing more to say.

maxinion.8396:

Xyonon.3987:

because…

Because none of the traits, except III and XI, increase your damage or cooldowns, and those are the things you need on phant builds. You get a little bit of extra damage because of all the power you’re stacking, but that’s a lot of points to burn for 150 power (which is about a 4% damage buff for both you and your phants). Things like 15% phant damage or 20% faster phant attack are substantially better (ends up being an overall 7-8% buff to your DPS, since it only affects phants). On top of this you get the cooldown reduction to spam more phants.

Now, if you’re talking about 200 power + 12% personal damage… the equation shifts. 6 dom is quite nice for this reason, even if there’s no great Master level major trait to take still.

With 5/4/0/5/0 you too have serval phants support, even more tbh:

• +15% phant dmg
• +15% illusion dmg
• +150 power (buffed pt has ~3000 power = 5% for you AND phants)
• +5% dmg to idle enemies for YOU
• signet trait -> faster healskill, compensation for lack of Illusionists Celerity.

Your phantasms deal even greater damage like that than with 2/4/0/5/3 or 2/4/0/4/4:

• +15% phant dmg
• +15% illusion dmg OR -20% cd on their attacks
• faster resummoning (the only thing I really miss tbh)
• +3-9% damage for YOU

Except for the argument “you have to contrantly resummon your illusions” wich is pretty much the opposite of the reason to trait for phantasmal haste, I cannot see ANY reason why I should trait into illusions just because I won’t trait for empowered mantras.

Also having fun with pistol, offhand sword or F3 to stack vuln at the beginning of a fight

Bombs also have a larger radius. In the end the damage is pretty even, however grenades toolbelt aswell 2 and 4 are pretty bursty, and 4 adds some good cc wich bombs don’t have without a sacrifice of damage. In the end Mork vom Ork is totally right. Allways pick both. You DO NOT want to use grenades 1. But 2-4 are too good and 5 is sometimes too pretty strong since it stacks up rapid and is a good dps boost against bosses and regen (like cof 1).

The funny sentence up there “elixier gun is useless”. Heh – I smiled

because…

hendo.1940:

So the last option would be the mantra heal but I would definitly deal more damage with the signet so I’m stuck with only ONE mantra in my utility bar. That’s why I tought about 5/4/0/5/0 for +15% phant damage instead of mantra damage.

Then you lose compounding power. If you want to drop empowering mantras, I’d say 10/20/0/x/10 should be your base and then just stick in relevant traits from there.

Hm… 2/4/0/4/2 would be my base with 2 points left. Now tell me where to put them.

• +100 power (4% dmg) and signet trait
• cdr for illus and atkspd for phants
• +15% phant dmg and only cdr for illus
• or drop crappy stats and +3-9% personal damage for 150 power (6% personal and phantasmal dmg~), signet trat AND +15% phant dmg aswell 5% personal dmg against idle enemies (pve). Are you serious with telling me to go for compounding power?! o.O

Listen to Zumi rather than to me if it’s about WvW I’m a nub there :x

How to do it? Well if you are EU I can show you ingame xD

In general use the following weapons / skills:

• pistol + shield (self preference, one more finisher + utility, rifle grants more dmg)
• healing turret (=HT)
• grenades
• bombs (big ol’ bomb in toolbelt)
• elixier gun

This is my general setup. For buffing you do this:
HT → big ol’ bomb → fire bomb → shield 4 twice → F1 (HT) → elixier gun 4 → swap weapons for interrupting your knockback from elixier gun 4.

You can also use the thumper turret instead of the elixier gun for a burst of explosion finishers (3 finishers), but it has a long cd, whereas the elixier gun has almost no cd. It’s also a good damage dealer and a good combination is to use the also low cd fire bomb, sticky bomb and then elixier gun 4, so you share 3 stacks might aswell root all enemies in your devastating elixier gun aoe skill.

For engineer the incredible expensive rune of strength is by far the best option in pve. You can share 30 sec might with them since engi is all about vulnerability and explosion finishers

You don’t need the speed of the rune of the pack since you got speedy kits. However they are a good viable cheaper version for the engi. So if you are rather poor, I recommend them for you.

And your build – you really should go for 6/6/0/X/X. 2 for speedy kits in open world, vigor on swiftness or special effect on kits (pull on bomb). At the 2nd 6 you have a trait wich increases your damage dealt by 2% per condition on an enemy. In general thats pretty much a +10% dmg boost for you, at world bosses easy 20% wich is insane.

Lol And if you trait into inspiration??

I FEEL FURIOfreshing

They said 10% overall damage. However this would have been like 20% crit dmg. But I had 112% crit damage back then wich would be nowdays in our new system displayed as 262% crit damage. I have 212% now so … Yea. I lost the ferocity of my ruby orbs wich was 5.6% aswell 100 from traits (6.6%). But even then → 262% to 224.2% are -37.8% wich seems to be a bit more.

1 – There isn’t a most efficient dungeon build anymore. You are able to swap traits, so you have to swap and adapt to the situation if you allways want to have “the most efficient” build.

2 – For beginner a phantasm build with reflection is the way to go. You should go for a 5/4/0/5/0 or 6/4/0/4/0. It depends on you and the enemy quite a lot!
If you do not want to retrait all the time, 4 points in inspiration are a must have for reflection on warden (focus phantasm). Now you either use 6 points in dominion and use the master trait “empowered mantras” wich gives you a huge dmg boost if you are using 2+ mantras at the same time (charged) and you should use the sword in that case since it has the highes personal dps. Otherwise go 5/4/0/5/0 so you gain another 15% phantasm damage at inspiration 5 and you don’t have to use mantras. So you can use skills like portal, nullfield, feedback, blink, signet of inspiration, illusionary defender etc. Also supports a more phantasm oriented playstyle, like using the greatsword and less melee dangerzone wich is pretty hard for beginners. You’re no help if you are downed all the time.

3 – 6/6/0/0/2 is full dps yes. 6/4/0/4/0 is max personal reflection damage. 2/4/0/4/4 is max reflection uptime (warden cdr on atk speed and resummoning)

4 – From the above it’s 6/4/0/4/0. But I recommend 5/4/0/5/0 for you. Best overall build imo.

5 – Berserker. You get up to 55-60% crit chance with that. Keep in mind that there is also bufffood and other players like warrior and ranger aswell the buff “fury” wich will increase together your crit chance by ~40%. Never go above 60% in general. More power > more precision btw.

6 – Again Berserker.

Here to help, keep asking if you want to

To be honest, grenades are too strong to be ignored. Their passive damage dealt with vulnerability aswell their insane condition stacking makes them by far the best ranged option. Especially in pugs you often are unable to facetank, even with bombs. Also the chilling and another blind aswell the higher damage of 2 and 4 are stronger than any static discharge. I don’t really like DS tbh – it forces you to use your toolbelt skills, even if you don’t need them. The damage is also just … ok. I don’t say anything else except 6/6/0/X/X is bad. But I say it’s definitly weaker.

A good combination is the glue bomb followed by elixier gun 4 since it deals insane damage. While in midair just swap your weapons, it will cancel your “knockback”, so you can keep spamming grenades n bombs. The cd is also so low you can use it as finisher and dd.

I sometimes switch the elixier gun for thumper as i mentioned b4. You can stack a ~14 sec stealth for example or burstheal combined with F1 or healing turret activation. If you activate the thumper his explosion finisher on F? counts as 2 finisher, followed by the toolbelt finisher gives you 3, healing turret 4, as you wish shield = 5 * 1300 heal +5k from turret himself is like a “oh kitten”-button insta full health for everyone!

Don’t mind to swap

anyone has seen the dude who is trying to sell sunrise for 9000 gold? Image it – noone buys it, but he spent 900g just to put it into the TP

Axe is more of an offhand for range wich is used with 2, spam focus skills, maybe DS 4 and 5 then 2 again and never try to touch 1 xD
Dagger op

It doesn’t matter technically, but it’s kinda annoying …

There are no good topics lately eh? :P

Greetings everyone, main Mesmer / Engi here

From the mesmer I know that any pulls and knockbacks without damage (like curtain Focus 4) will not bring you in combat, nor make neutral mobs hostile. This means pulls and knock backs won’t reveal you.

As for the engineer this means it’s a good option to use smoke bomb followed by shield 4 to ress someone. Since big ol’ bomb deals damage it will reveal you, working as intended. It would be nice if the damage would proc before the stealth indeed, but it’s ok how it works right now.

To the turret thing: Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter where the turret is deployed, the blast finisher will allways be YOU (toolbelt). So for example you can stay into a fire field, put that turret down, move away, and use F1 in the smoke field to become invisible.

MARKONINI.4153:

I made Static Tempered Spinal Blades to look cool but all I can see is the HOBOSACK T.T

PLEASE make a toggle on/off.

:(

until you use one skill then the back item shows up.

Pistol + shield or rifle doesn’t matter that much. Just don’t use a pistol offhand.

Go for 6/6/0/X/X.

Use grenades, bombs and elixier gun. Elixier gun can be swapped for thumper turret since he got 3 combo finisher allowing you to share 18 stacks might for 30 sec (rune of strength).

Sigil of battle and force.

Pistol + shield or rifle doesn’t matter that much. Just don’t use a pistol offhand.

Go for 6/6/0/X/X.

Use grenades, bombs and elixier gun. Elixier gun can be swapped for thumper turret since he got 3 combo finisher allowing you to share 18 stacks might for 30 sec (rune of strength).

Sigil of battle and force.

Ignoring the flamings etc around here, gonna ask you guys some real questions:

Lately I’m kinda confused what traits to take for what situation. I really dislike the mantra dmg in the dominion trait line. And I’m also confused what makes more sense for the team aswell for me.

6/4/0/4/0 seems a good build, IF I use at least 2 (?) mantras. But what Skills am I using? If I use a mantra instead of the nullfield, I’m ok with that. One slot almost all the time will be feedback ofc. Then I’ve got a last utility slot wich normally is signet of inspiration since I’m playing rarely in organized groups and got runes of strength + battle sigil for might share. Even if I only am able to share ~3-6 stacks for 30 sec I guess it’s more groups damage than +4% dmg for me, isn’kitten So the last option would be the mantra heal but I would definitly deal more damage with the signet so I’m stuck with only ONE mantra in my utility bar. That’s why I tought about 5/4/0/5/0 for +15% phant damage instead of mantra damage.

I’ve also played 2/4/0/4/4 but the +3-9% dmg from the illusion trait is less worth than the power missed from dominion, aswell the cdr on illusion attacks could be outdamaged with inspiration 5 and power from dominon. The only reason to go for inspiration seems to be the summoning CDR.

So you think it’s the best to switch between 6/4/0/4/0 and 5/4/0/5/0? Also, what are you traiting in dominon 4? I normally use the signet but all other traits seem to be totally bad there Vulnerbility or boon rippng on shatter for some F3 opening?

Gnah … help me

Ruby Orbs still grant awesome stats for a low price and are better in organized groups than strength.

Battle grants best mesmer stats due phants affection.

Fire and Air is kitten in pve.

6/6/0/0/2
6/4/0/4/0
5/4/0/5/0
2/4/0/4/4

tons of em

That reason is kinda silly … The warrior might thing seems not that correct, I can’t confirm that they can do this, and if they can it definitly requires a long time til they stacked up. Also there aren’t only warriors in a party, at least not in mine o.O

But what I really don’t understand is your last sentence o.o “plus you using a build for reflection and instead of precision go for power”. Wat?

Sooo… I was thinking about going for 6/4/0/4/0 but then I realized that I do not use any mantras anymore since the new patch is out. I simply have NO SPACE for those medicore utility skills. Since I went rune of strength aswell sigil of battle as before but chaged bloodlust to sigil of strength I can create a lot of might myself. Since then I’m sure that the damage the team deals with my buffshare is higer than the personal damage I would deal more with some crappy mantra bonus. So I started to use the signet of inspiration again, like in old days when I tried them once. Now I’ve traited signet cdr since I use 2 of them and I went 5/4/0/5/0 for double phant trait and no mantra dmg. Anyone else does approximately the same? Or why don’t you? I’m 80% pug.

See page one? o.O

Staff is the best weapon on enemies like Lyssa where the Warlock literally crits for f|<ing 25’000~ damage and also superior against dangerious enemies in fotm or simply soloing “do net get close” champs in open world. I rarely use it, but when I do, it makes sense.
The warlock outdamages any phant at 4+ conditions afaik.

To the GS qq and flames: GS became a great weapon if you go for buffshare and use the rune of strength. I would never have used the GS in dungeons but if there are multiple targets the phantasm hits better than the iS or iD and GS 2 + strength + buffshare is awesome. However I only play pugs but for elitism dungeon guilds it’s not the way to go.

SO WAT IT’S kittenING AWESOME MAN! ò.Ó

• … you kill your ex GF with a huge mirror, shouting at her dead corpse “SHATTER BURST kitten”!

Traveler is terrible for pve … so what game mode?

PvE?
WvW?

This is the most important questions but I have to agree with Pyro: So far there are some facepalm suggestions – oh god …

Maybe I’m gonna create a 2nd mesmer, just to see how much it sux right now. The mesmer is the only class that really lacks so hard in lower levels. Oh my …

Btw the following things can help:
Sigil of Blood in every weapon set, together with sigil of battle. Allways swap weapons to gain much might. It will help a lot. Buy new gear every 5-10 lv, and also use runes in it, mainly power and might dura (strength). But don’t waste too much money in each set.

cookie cutter? first time i hear that.

btw I’d say this is good too:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vgAQNAs9MGJOpg5Ln0DV76VXSBu5NA-zwBBYfEZ0UGAkILjOzsIasVOFRjVXDT5iIqGA-e
6/4/0/4/0

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vgAQNAs9MIJOpg5LHlCs7dSFUdJF4m3A-zwBBYfEZ0UGAkILjOzsIasVOFRjVXDT5iIqGA-e
common 2/4/0/4/4

On phants would actually be ok imo, to come up for the lack of modifier and weapon dmg transfers. Illusions however, my god no, that would be too much.

To make Pyros sentences a bit more clearly:

Illusions take your power, precision, ferocity, etc but will take their own crit chance and modifiers etc. This means might on you affects your illusions, might on illusions doesn’t affect them. Fury on you doesn’t affect illusions, fury on them does affect them.

There is also 2/4/0/4/4 for reflection uptime instead of self burst via feedback. Also want to mention that you should carry all weapons you got with you, every mesmer weapon is situational and should be adapted to the situation. You’ll find the weapon that fits you the most in each situation.

xeonage.1253:

assassin, berserker and PTC

Beautiful outfits … except … THAT DISGUSTING BACK ITEM DOES FIT AS MUCH AS GENEROSITY TO A BANKER! They are really beautiful but the back item ruins it

Curunen.8729:

Xyonon.3987:

Curunen.8729:

I’m torn between generosity, fire or battle…

Depends on your condi cleanse but I’d say:
battle > generosity > doom > water > karka slaying > no sigil at all > fire.
:o

Is fire really that bad? I never thought it crit anyway, so it just seems to have had an effective reduction in cooldown and lower damage?

Well it deals about 600-800 dmg … every 6-7 sec. I guess you know what I mean right?

10% less due crit dmg nerf. Looks like 20% on swordsman due the fact that normal ppl just see their crits and ignore non crits.

Just tested, just a tooltip bug. It will start at a 7 1/2 sec CD. Working properly.

Cannot confirm any reflection bugs. He works perfectly fine for me.

However he still sometimes won’t attack, I noticed this against angry karkas aswell serval “building” like devour nests.

Curunen.8729:

I’m torn between generosity, fire or battle…

Depends on your condi cleanse but I’d say:
battle > generosity > doom > water > karka slaying > no sigil at all > fire.
:o

Dee Jay.2460:

I’m going to toss in Superior Rune of the Pack as a budget alternative.

(1): +25 Power
(2): +10% Swiftness Duration
(3): +50 Power
(4): 25% chance when struck to grant nearby allies Might, Fury and Swiftness for 10s. (Cooldown: 20s)
(5): +100 Power
(6): +20% Swiftness Duration; +125 Precision

We all know that Mesmers really appreciate a little extra Swiftness and the bonus Might and Fury are easy to procc in most encounters. It also counts for the entire party, possibly even for your Phantasms. The 125 Precision is nice too and applies to them as well.

I also told a friend of mine to do that. They seem the next good cheaper version of the 60g rune of strength. 175 power and 6% crit chance alone are pretty ok. I just can tell you they are pretty ok for open world swiftness aswell general pve for a good mesmer in pugs and not elitism play.