Converted any quickness on you to slow while channeling Echo of Memory/DejaVu (Shield Block).
Now that Echo of Memory blocks for the full duration, I feel that having quickness on you while using it is a bit awkward given our availability of quickness when we choose Seize the Moment as our GM. If you have quickness, you will block for less time.
My suggestion is to convert quickness on you to slow, resulting in more block time than normal, and then turn it back to quickness when you summon your phantasm. This would only happen if you have Seize the Moment traited.
We don’t have any chrono traits that augment our shields, and reduced recharge is probably too dangerous when we have alacrity as a specialization mechanic.
Also, I noticed Seize the Moment didn’t trigger off 0 illusions during the last BWE2, not sure if intended.
(edited by adelaide.6213)
My suggestion for Lost Time would be:
Whenever you gain alacrity, your next attack slows (3s icd)
Fits in with the chronomancer theme of “I steal time from you, and give time to allies”. I’m not sure why Lost Time is tied to critical hits in the first place.
So I played around a teensie bit with the build and wondered if you could get a bit more out of those zerg interrupts with this
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8ensnBlfilpBufCEgiFcjyMDitKoMAWtXr+Vn1dF-TFiFABUfBAiU9nrUCCwBB4MdDKp87t9HS4JAQKAYGDA-wThe rune pick is because that’s what’s on my armor atm. Cruilty stacking sigil brings that critical damage back up, and the easy 25 might stacks will trick out both power and that massive aoe confusion spread. Anything that escapes, or is just outside of the aoe fields will get reked on the bonus procs.
I think the opportunity cost of skipping on DE is too great (helps setting up cSplit for well bursts.) Apart from when Gravity Well/ CSplit is up, I’m not generating a great deal of interrupts on a packed zerg from a safe position; I got killed many times this weekend trying to land the “perfect” shield wave on the entire enemy zerg. I mostly rely on calamity as my go-to ranged pressure while the I wait for the longer cd’s.
So while in theory you may be a bit more bursty, you sacrifice some aoe pressure outside of cd’s (calamity doesn’t scale with condi), and ease of setting up your burst (DE for cSplit).
Additionally, I think your crit chance is too high. About 50% crit chance should be considered a “soft cap” with perma-fury from dueling and 30% extra crit from the chrono trait.
I spent this entire BWE running Gravity and Calamity Wells with Chaotic Interruption. I ran full zerk with sword/shield + staff. I really enjoyed using staff with this build because phase retreat and iWarlock provide the most reliable shatter fodder for Continuum Split. The shield synergizes quite well with CI and adds a decent amount of damage to the build.
Some other notes —
cSplit execution:
If i’m already in position to land a good gravity well I may cast it with 0 clones mid-cast. Otherwise, I like to use it with at least 2 clones, which I find gives me enough time to blink, gravity, chaos storm, null field. I’ve found chaining calamity (3/4s) after gravity during cSplit to be too clunky and eat up too much precious time, so its much better to follow up gravity (1s) with chaos storm and null field (both 1/4s). If calamity is up I cast it too at the end, but it usually will go off after cSplit; its only 20s cd, but likely in a good position so its generally worth it.
((Side note: I spent about an hour practicing my cSplit rotation in HotM before hopping into WvW. I found the practice worth it))
Mirror:
Low cd goes well with Vamp runes. I haven’t had much problems with sustain choosing it over ether feast because of the Manip trait plus alacrity.
Dueling over Domination:
While Power Block may seem very attractive for the extra damage, I believe the perms-fury and DE you get from Dueling is too good to pass on. The shield wave doesn’t technically “stun” so I don’t believe CS affects it at all.
Chrono Grandmaster Trait:
I chose the 5-crit slow trait over the other ones. CP doesn’t really fit this build and the quickness shatter doesn’t trigger off of 0 illusions as of this BWE. Perhaps if 0 illusion quickness shatter worked, I would swap to it for easier execution of well combos during cSplit.
Phantasmal Fury over Desperate Decoy:
I’ve found Desperate Decoy at odds with the semi-long cast time wells this build because it interrupts your casting when it activates. One nice thing about DDecoy with Vamp runes is that you literally disappear for 3 seconds when you’re getting bursted. The 25% threshold for Vamp runes is fine with this build, as you would likely go down otherwise, but the 50% threshold for DDecoy is too cumbersome.
I did some testing during the last BWE with SoInspiration and its equivalent passive skill. I chained UtilityBar SoInspiration and then phantasm-SoInspiration right after while running full alacrity traits. I saw that the passive SoInspiration respected alacrity (passive SoInspiration was able to proc right after Utility SoInspiration when the latter came back up again.)
Will have to test this again when I get on.
What about 3 mini-floats and 1 pull at the end? (extra cc at the end to balance the fact the pulses won’t relocate you to the center anymore)
Some fights last night during reset using CI/DE/ Slow traits and Calamity/Gravity. I plan to make a montage later so these clips are unedited (the fights are usually over by 3/4 of the videos).
. I really like the staff when running chrono-wells. The iWarlock and phaseRetreat provide easy ways to get shatter fodder to allow for a good cSplit-Gravity well combo. I mostly combo’d Gravity well Chaos storm during cSplit; I found Calamity’s cast time to be too long to cast after Gravity during cSplit.
I really like the shield in this sort of build. I’ve crit squishies for ~4.5k (2.2k x2) with both hits of the shield. There is however a huge tendency to get greedy in getting a perfect shield wave off on the entire zerg. I’m running full zerk with ~3k power w/o might w/ bloodlust stack so trying to get my shield wave to hit the entire enemy zerg killed me several times last night.
That looks pretty good, but is there a condi variant ? Or rather, how does it perform with condi instead of power and sword ? Kinda sick and tired of playing same ol’ power builds since been playing sword + focus for just wayyyyyyyyyyyy tooooooo long.
I don’t think it would work quite as well with condi. I’m not generating many clones that actually reach their targets. The wells don’t have any damage condi’s either. I don’t believe Mistrust is viable on zerg v zerg fights with this build because you aim to keep people immob’d in your wells while you burst them.
Some fights last night during reset using CI/DE/ Slow traits and Calamity/Gravity. I plan to make a montage later so these clips are unedited (the fights are usually over by 3/4 of the videos).
. I really like the staff when running chrono-wells. The iWarlock and phaseRetreat provide easy ways to get shatter fodder to allow for a good cSplit-Gravity well combo. I mostly combo’d Gravity well Chaos storm during cSplit; I found Calamity’s cast time to be too long to cast after Gravity during cSplit.
I really like the shield in this sort of build. I’ve crit squishies for ~4.5k (2.2k x2) with both hits of the shield. There is however a huge tendency to get greedy in getting a perfect shield wave off on the entire zerg. I’m running full zerk with ~3k power w/o might w/ bloodlust stack so trying to get my shield wave to hit the entire enemy zerg killed me several times last night.
“Passive” trait skills like Signet of Inspiration, Defender, etc. will be reset by Continuum Shift. Rune effects (Vampirism mist, etc.) will NOT.
I think the problem is more general – I’ve been experiencing that any trait that casts a skill – Signet of Inspiration, Mender’s Purity, etc. seems to resets your skill “queue” so you have to spam your desired follow up skill to get it off in time.
The last charge (whether HM is traited or not) is bugged and does not work with MP.
There have been others reporting about this bug on this forum.
3.
Before the patch, PU was not a popular choice ever since its adjustment to give might/swiftness. In order to make it a competitive trait with the other buffed grandmasters in the chaos line a buff to it is needed.
The problem with the 100% stealth duration now is that a mesmer can have very little downtime in stealth if he has his skill bar full of stealth skills; this is not a very fun playstyle for many mesmers who are asked to “hide in keeps” in WvW nor for those tasked with hunting them down. Also, it may encourage a playstyle of being permanently invisible while only using phantasms.
I would adjust PU by keeping the 100% stealth duration, but adding an ICD to the stealth increasing portion of the trait. This will discourage stacking multiple sources of stealth, but make it still attractive enough for builds that can play around with stealth.
5.
Yes, I am pleased with the support options in Chaos/Inspiration.
6.
I don’t like the torch’s recharge condition because too heavily encourages taking PU.
Doesn’t seem to have a target limit right now. (Trait text says 5). Have fun in WvW!
Uh? It seemed to hit only 5 targets when I tested it :O
After further testing, this is currently affecting all support skills that have the 5 target cap, including Guardian Shouts.
Go to HotM → Spec Master of fragmentation along with Inspiring distortion → see everyone encased in a prism
Doesn’t seem to have a target limit right now. (Trait text says 5). Have fun in WvW!
Also works with ressing.
I’ve tested and it also works with:
- Lifesteal Food
- Superior Runes of the Water
I would be in favor of keeping the 100% stealth duration, but adding an ICD to the duration increasing part of PU (10 seconds sounds fair).
This will allow builds with 1-2 sources of stealth work well with PU, while making builds with 3+ more stealth options not as outrageous.
I noticed in your fights against s/d thieves you generally use mirror blade while the thief is not in melee range. Is this intentional? – are you doing this because you anticipate them to shadowstep to you (appears that shadowstepping doesn’t disjoint the projectile,) or are those just lucky moments?
http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgMBlAWYBKQ~ or http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgMBlAZoBKQ~
The mesmzerker, played full squishy and focused on iZerker damage. Mantra of Restoration, Blink, Mantra of Pain or a Well, TW/GW. It’s a shame you don’t get Fury on phantasms, but I can’t imagine how to fit it in…What would be your thoughts be on this dank 4x iZerker while invuln build? (Ether signet + signet traits)
Can’t see myself using Signet of Ether, especially planning to “waste” it to get one more zerker up since we usually fight severely outnumbered (15 vs 25+) and timing my heal is crucial… It could work in 1v1 and small scale roaming, tho.
I think signet heal would work very well with any dom/inspiration/X build; i’m talking about serious practical use now, not the gimmick that I mentioned previously.
When traited it is:
28s cd.
distortion.
1 condi clear. (+ another 2 from mender’s purity)
Not to mention it makes the SoInspiration Grandmaster trait very good as well (45 → 36s cd, condi clear, and distortion). One major gripe about the signet heal currently is that it does not provide enough sustain. With MP + MoP and the reduced signet cd trait, it makes it much more viable now than it was ever before.
In your Dom/Inspiration/Chrono build, I definitely would choose the signet heal + traits over Shattered Concentration/Mantra heal.
And all your assumptions are based on the fact that PU could bring 100% more stealth time. Devs said those weren’t the final numbers. Seeing how that 100% would make some of our other stealth skills OP, I have doubts it will remain like that.
I could see at least 1 more second being added to all stealth skills with PU (2s total) being reasonably implemented. Apparently, the devs believe it is/will be slightly weak, why else would they consider such a massive 100% buff in the first place?
I agree with you that 100% stealth duration would be overpowered in some builds.
http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgMBlAWYBKQ~ or http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgMBlAZoBKQ~
The mesmzerker, played full squishy and focused on iZerker damage. Mantra of Restoration, Blink, Mantra of Pain or a Well, TW/GW. It’s a shame you don’t get Fury on phantasms, but I can’t imagine how to fit it in…
What would be your thoughts be on this dank 4x iZerker while invuln build? (Ether signet + signet traits)
For zerguing Chronomancer will be pretty much mandatory with shield and wells. There are quite a lot of variations to test. The best for me are Dom/Insp/Chrono, Dom/Chaos/Chrono and Dom/Due/Chrono.
I have different thoughts on what will be meta/mandatory for wvw zerging. I believe the updated PU, which will make veil 4s, will be required for at least one mesmer in the zerg, and ideally a chronomancer.
Currently, taking PU makes veil 3s and most mesmers that take it (and not many choose PU in a zerg build anyways) likely do not trait glamour cd as well. However, I believe that the extra second of stealth come HoT will allow one zerg to significantly out-engage another zerg that is only running with non-PU 2s veil. In effect, there will be an “metagame” between mesmers of opposing zergs where if one mesmer is running PU veil and the other isn’t, the former’s zerg will generally trump the other in initiation and intial fight momentum. Thus, both side’s mesmers will feel the need to run PU veil.
I am basing my assertions on what I have observed in organized GvG’s where there is currently an emerging meta strategy to run smoke field + blasts for ~6s stealth. The guilds I have seen employing this strategy generally have better early momentum. Likewise, I predict the increase in stealth duration by taking the updated PU will be significant; the difference between a PU veil and non-PU veil will be more pronounced. Also, currently traiting PU and glamour CD comes with significant opportunity costs that will be alleviated come HoT.
(edited by adelaide.6213)
If well of precognition is to be consistent with the necro’s well of power https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Well_of_Power, it will not a source of group stability as many posters here are hoping for (and it does not pulse on the caster either). Another similar skill is the warrior’s stomp.
The 66% must refer to something. We are only trying to figure out to what.
EDIT: Ofc the neutreulization could be coded without an actual equation. It could just say:
if chill + alacrity applied —> CD normalHowever, I still wanna know, how alacrity actually works^^
Regarding what Robert stated on the livestream https://youtu.be/71Ls5bjLFBk?t=5m , which paraphrased was, “if you have chill for 3s you gain 1s of recharge; if you have alacrity for 3s you lose 1s of recharge (my math may not be 100% correct)”
(According to your earlier calculations, the extra 1s of recharge is closer to 1.2s)
I find it a little misleading to refer to alacrity as “inverse chill” rather than “negative chill” when you compare it to Robert’s statements.
It seems the general forumla should be:
Boolean IsChilled // (1 or 0)
Boolean IsAlacrity
Recharge = BaseRecharge + (ChillFactor * BaseRecharge* IsChilled) – (ChillFactor * BaseRecharge * IsAlacrity)
(edited by adelaide.6213)
Why are we assuming that it was programmed with an equation in the first place?
There are only 4 possible cases (chill + alacrity, chill, alacrity, none) and 3 distinct results.
Maybe it’s only just me, but I’m already drooling over the idea of being an ultra veil bot in WvW.
Chronomancery:
Required for f5 shatter apparently; and there’s supposed to be a trait that grants alacrity on shatters.
Inspiration:
Mender’s Purity, Focus trait, Superspeed Glamours.
Chaos:
Manipulation and Dampening. All 3 GM traits seem very viable for this build.
PU: 4 seconds veils + self boons
CI: goes well with focus pull, staff 5, Elite Well.
BD: this build shatters a lot
Utilities:
-Mantra heal: (goes very well with buffed Mender’s Purity, always has been great in Zerg vs Zerg)
-Blink: not taking this off my bar for fancy new wells. Sorry.
-Veil: the whole point of this build.
-Signet of Illusions: for more shatters.
-Elite well if CI, maybe Mass Invis if PU, otherwise Time Warp.
For the following, I’m going to assume Signet of Illusions does not refresh the new f5 shatter, but the f5 shatter will properly reset it.
You get lots of veils by using:
-f5 shatter
-veil
-pop your shatters for alacrity (keep in mind your can use shatters while casting veil/signet)
-use signet
-pop your shatters for alacrity (again)
-rewind
-you now have a lot of alacrity recharging the f5 shatter and the rest of your skills, and veil/signet are off cd.
Hate to rain your parade but…this won’t work.
So back when Lyssa runes gave all the boons for a couple seconds, I did a bit of a test. I got 5 mesmers together, got everyone to pop their elite, and then instantly pop SoI. This gave 5s to each person. In theory, one mesmer would end up with 5 -> 10 -> 20 -> 40 -> 80 seconds of boons, and this could be maintained indefinitely by using SoI off of cooldown.
In practice…this doesn’t work. There is a duration stacking cap for boons. Once you have a certain number of applications of that boon, it will stop stacking entirely until it is gone from you.
So, how will this interact with quickness? Well…that depends on exactly how they implement it of course, but it doesn’t look promising. That initial 10 seconds of quickness is made of 20 different 1 second pulses each overlapping by one second. This alone might make it completely resistant to stacking longer. If you do pop SoI after this, you’ll be doubling all of those stacks on everyone, and then doubling again for each additional SoI. Some point along the line of doubling it’s just going to not work.
Just curious:
Did your testing indicate that SoI generated boons that stack in duration as one stack with a long duration, or copy the source boon’s stack wholesale?
There’s a thread already bopping around in this forum where someone’s working on a fairly tanky mantra-heal Triumphant Distortion build. You could try their latest as a starting point. (Though if you look at the videos you’ll notice they’re not rushing into the thick of things.)
Can you provide a link to that thread or videos? I can’t seem to find it unless you’re talking about Menaka’s TD phantasm-mantra build.
Anyways, copypasting what I said in a similar thread a few months back because OP seems to have skiped over the link I posted earlier:
In general, a commander should run a very selfish build; this means skipping out on all glamours in favor of more selfish utilities except veil/portal. Veil/Portal is the exception because theoretically there is no one more coordinated/reliable than yourself that can drop it.
This is the best build I can come up with maximizing invulnerability. A valid variation would be to use Harmonious mantras instead of Triumphant Distortion if you really need the extra reliable stability/condi clear.
Some notes on the build:
- Gearing is Nomad’s/Knights. You need a decent amount of precision for to proc vigor consistently.
- Energy sigils are a must. I chose cleansing sigils so you aren’t as pressured to pop the mantra heal inefficiently to get rid of a immob or something.
- Most of your damage/tagging will come from dodge (DE) + IP Shatter.
- I believe mantra is the most ideal heal for commanding. Regroups provide time to recharge it. It also synergizes well with Adventurer runes (extra dodge on heal).
- Focus should be fine instead of torch if you’re not being pressured.
- No reflects. A commander should not run reflects because of funny interactions with necro’s dark path.
- Although you probably won’t need to because you have stability mantra, remember that distortion can act as stability.
About Staff and effective usage of Phase Retreat
Some may disagree with my choice of staff because you should avoid using phase retreat during an engagement because it makes you harder to follow. Here is my justification of using a staff regardless:
- You can still phase retreat inside water fields to top off during regroups
- With this build, when you are pulled by an engi, a combination of stability mantra -> torch stealth -> phase retreat will quickly get you out of danger.
- Staff is still the best defensive weapon available with chaos armor/storm
By the way, I would avoid trying to do cheeky micro with phase retreat where you about-face as you engage head-on into the enemy zerg and phase retreat to “skip past” their hammer train and avoid damage. The video lag makes pulling off this maneuver reliably difficult. Furthermore, I believe you aren’t able to turn your character if you become immobilized.
There was a similar thread a few months ago:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Commander-Mesmer/first#post4657198
I still stand by what I said then, namely a 0/6/0/2/6 — triumphant or mantra + IP build with veil, mantra stability/heal, and illusion signet (no blink).
If you want to do some damage you want to have a mix of sentinel’s and knight’s (precision for vigor on crit).
Would be too overpowered in a 6/2/0/0/6 IP build with daze mantra and mirror images.
Here’s a tanky frontline utility-shatter build I’d encourage you to try out.
It is very good at helping you stick to your driver and cleaving downs in melee range.
I use a 0/4/0/4/6 zerker staff/GS shatter build with vigor shatters and IE.
GS for quick burst and swap to staff for good sustained damage until mindwrack is back up.
I run traveler’s runes and use staff phase retreat for the great mobility (plus it’s good practice for pvp)
I talk more about my build here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Looking-for-PVE-Build-Scepter-if-possible/first#post4769926
One of the reasons I hesitate to take reflect distortion is because I like to use distortion to ensure my mass invis is not interrupted when escaping.
Over the course of this making this video, did you encounter such a problem much? That is getting revealed because of a reflected projectile.
In my power WvW build using scepter/torch + GS I’m about 1/5 to 1/4 cele for some survivability. But that’s it.
This is my go-to open world/Living story build (I use something completely different for dungeons.)
Great burst damage, high mobility, lots of vigor/dodges and very decent sustained damage when shatters are on cd through IE staff clones even though you’re not condi. If you want to run a condi variant swap out Illusionary Persona for Maim.
When I’m tackling challenging solo content (LS achievements) I use 40% condi duration food. The food combined with Giver’s staff (20% duration), burning sigil, and traveler’s runes give me 2s burning on each staff clone bounce.
(edited by adelaide.6213)
Looks like you’re going for a heavy ranged/utility build with 12 second berserker phantasms. I tweaked your build a bit optimizing certain trait, rune, and sigil choices:
Some notes:
- You want blink in WvW. It is a stun-break and an escape. A traited 1200 range blink also allows you to contest objectives better and there are many ledges you can blink on top of in WvW.
- There are better rune choices than Divinity Runes. Consider any of the following for this build: Hoelbrak, Strength, Traveler’s, Centaur’s, or Pack.
- I highly recommend having energy sigils (extra dodge on weapon swap) on both weapon sets.
- Strength sigils are not very effective in any build without good boon duration. Also, raw crit chance from Accuracy sigils does not affect illusions, making them a poor choice for mesmers. Sigil of Fire is great on Greatswords for tagging purposes.
- Ether feast should be the go-to heal of choice in most builds. The signet heal is only effective for certain builds, but not this one.
Yes, base the Nomad has more, but is not conducive to mesmer, which is why I augmented with Melandru because you are also running without any condi-clears. Running a mesmer without a cleanse is asking to be mocked while melted with conditions. Even with my group, I make sure I have at least one cleanse, be it traits, mantra, or nullfield. My set up of your build has a higher survival rating than yours.
Make sure you’re looking at the right build/post.
The build you linked swapped Adventurer runes for Melandru. When you account for this, it actually has less armor than the Nomad set. If you’re uncomfortable with Adventurer runes why not just use Melandru and keep the Nomad armor? Power does not contribute to survivability at all.
False. My set with more toughness has more armor than yours. I also swapped the armor for Soldiers. As a mesmer you need to be able to kill and Nomads won’t allow for that. You can run in a circle and maybe whittle your opponent down, but by then either someone else has shown up to finish you off or they just laugh in your face as they heal up. So, the power is vital if you plan on killing someone with the kind of traits you’re using. Otherwise, reroll for a condi build and overpower them that way. And yes, the melandru runes are there to help keep up the toughness as well as keep down the conditions applied.
I don’t know where you’re getting your numbers from. Take any piece of nomad gear and compare it with soldier’s. You’ll see that Nomad has the more toughness and the same vitality.
Regardless, you should rely on the rest of your zerg/party to deal damage when commanding and focus on surviving. You get sufficient credit from kills to proc Triumphant Distortion from your party; and if you’re not in a party as a commander you’re doing it wrong.
Soldier? Sentinel? They have the same stats except that the primary is different. You still get some toughness and you keep some power. You’ve offset the lack of precision with trinkets and weapons.
Here, I changed the armor and the runes. You walk away with higher power, toughness, and vitality, but also have lower healing power and condition damage.
The build you linked swapped Adventurer runes for Melandru. When you account for this, it actually has less armor than the Nomad set. If you’re uncomfortable with Adventurer runes why not just use Melandru and keep the Nomad armor? Power does not contribute to survivability at all.
Also, looking back at the original build, I may have prioritized precision a bit too much. In this case if you’re looking for extra vitality, I would swap out the knight’s trinkets for soldier’s; I wouldn’t go under 30% crit though. (Ideally I would swap knight’s with nomad’s trinkets if they existed)
(edited by adelaide.6213)
Why did you pick Nomad armor? That’s Tough/vit/healing and I doubt it’s very beneficial to a mesmer. We’re only going to be healing ourselves nine times out of ten; it’s not like you traited to heal others and regen works off the healing power of the player it is applied to.
What would you suggest? I cannot think of any stat combination better suited for survivability above all else given a suitable amount of precision obtained from having knight’s trinkets.
1200 range blink (Far Reaching Manipulations, an Adept Dueling trait) is one of the more subtle and tempting to skip traits in PvP.
Having the extra 300 range allows you to teleport onto certain ledges in sPvP maps that would otherwise not be possible (same goes for WvW as well). Furthermore, the extra range allows you to outrange certain class’s gap closers (most notably thief with their 900 range steal/signet/shadowstep.)
I don’t believe sigil of impact affects phantasms. You don’t see any mesmers run sigil of force in any build for the same reason.
Dropping my 2 cents here.
In general, a commander should run a very selfish build; this means skipping out on all glamours in favor of more selfish utilities except veil/portal. Veil/Portal is the exception because theoretically there is no one more coordinated/reliable than yourself that can drop it.
This is the best build I can come up with maximizing invulnerability. A valid variation would be to use Harmonious mantras instead of Triumphant Distortion if you really need the extra reliable stability/condi clear.
Some notes on the build:
- Gearing is Nomad’s/Knights. You need a decent amount of precision for to proc vigor consistently.
- Energy sigils are a must. I chose cleansing sigils so you aren’t as pressured to pop the mantra heal inefficiently to get rid of a immob or something.
- Most of your damage/tagging will come from dodge (DE) + IP Shatter.
- I believe mantra is the most ideal heal for commanding. Regroups provide time to recharge it. It also synergizes well with Adventurer runes (extra dodge on heal).
- Focus should be fine instead of torch if you’re not being pressured.
- No reflects. A commander should not run reflects because of funny interactions with necro’s dark path.
- Although you probably won’t need to because you have stability mantra, remember that distortion can act as stability.
About Staff and effective usage of Phase Retreat
Some may disagree with my choice of staff because you should avoid using phase retreat during an engagement because it makes you harder to follow. Here is my justification of using a staff regardless:
- You can still phase retreat inside water fields to top off during regroups
- With this build, when you are pulled by an engi, a combination of stability mantra -> torch stealth -> phase retreat will quickly get you out of danger.
- Staff is still the best defensive weapon available with chaos armor/storm
By the way, I would avoid trying to do cheeky micro with phase retreat where you about-face as you engage head-on into the enemy zerg and phase retreat to “skip past” their hammer train and avoid damage. The video lag makes pulling off this maneuver reliably difficult. Furthermore, I believe you aren’t able to turn your character if you become immobilized.
I’m much too afraid to try Assassins, so I went with zerker, and it did pretty well in unranked/ranked. It can handle on point fighting a lot better than dps shatter when you factor in the frequent blocks. It deals a ton of single target dmg omg! There was even a time where I went down with phantasms up, and they downed a necro and I won the down fight. lolzy lolz he was salty as kitten.
My opinion is that berserker’s is superior to assassin’s for this build. Swapping the berserker amulet with assassin’s in the original build (without the +50 prec bonus from having a sword) yields:
(Assuming no might, which this build cannot generate)
For regular hits:
~1% direct damage loss when there is no fury.
~0.33% direct damage gain when there is fury.
Now you might argue that sigil procs from fire/air become more reliable with assassin’s amulet. However, the sigil procs themselves cannot crit, and scale well with power (0.85/1.1 respectively.)My conclusion is that you’re trading a few bleeds from sharper images for ~3k health. The bleeds are not worth it imo.
Fair calll adelaide. What about reliable crit procs from iswordsman and halting strike?
My point was there is insignificant difference in overall direct damage when you compare berserker’s with assassin’s in a build like this. With berserker’s crits/non-crits hit harder, but crits occur less frequently, resulting in a wider expected damage distribution when looking at relatively small sample sizes.
Still, I don’t think having more “consistent” damage is worth the loss of 3k health because this build isn’t meant to burst someone 100 → 0.
I’m much too afraid to try Assassins, so I went with zerker, and it did pretty well in unranked/ranked. It can handle on point fighting a lot better than dps shatter when you factor in the frequent blocks. It deals a ton of single target dmg omg! There was even a time where I went down with phantasms up, and they downed a necro and I won the down fight. lolzy lolz he was salty as kitten.
My opinion is that berserker’s is superior to assassin’s for this build. Swapping the berserker amulet with assassin’s in the original build (without the +50 prec bonus from having a sword) yields:
(Assuming no might, which this build cannot generate)
For regular hits:
~1% direct damage loss when there is no fury.
~0.33% direct damage gain when there is fury.
Now you might argue that sigil procs from fire/air become more reliable with assassin’s amulet. However, the sigil procs themselves cannot crit, and scale well with power (0.85/1.1 respectively.)
My conclusion is that you’re trading a few bleeds from sharper images for ~3k health. The bleeds are not worth it imo.
(edited by adelaide.6213)
Aren’t you a freekill with that 15k health, no IP for immediate Distortion and no staff/torch? I would like to have your word on Ranked arena plays.
Lockdown mesmer is certainly a viable spec; there are even some players who make it work with sword/focus + GS, which has arguably less defenses.
Although i typically run shatter in arena, I pull out a lockdown build (the one with CI usually) when I see the other team has few heavies or an abudance of thieves/rangers/engi’s for whatever reason.
I’d also encourage you to experiment with sigil of rage (quickness on proc like fire/air).
Running fire/air on both weapon sets is a little bit awkward as the cd on them doesn’t get reset when you swap weapons.
If you were to work sigil of rage into the build I would put it on the sword set (although it should still be fine on the scepter), replacing fire, since it has a higher cd than air. When you notice it proc, switch to scepter/pistol and do stun + scepter 3. Ideally you can pull off a quickness stomp as well.
Let’s talk about the 2nd build I linked, where I sacrificed the 2 points in dueling and kept CS. Since you’re not “lacking on damage” let’s assume you drop phantasmal fury.
My first impression of your original build was that you were going for sustained damage through phantasms while keeping your opponent locked down. You’re not trying to go full burst during a full stun/daze lockdown (62006 or “ShatterLock”) so with this build you’re valuing traits that provide more sustained damage, which are usually phantasm traits.
Let’s assume that pHaste and IC together make up for the loss of sustained damage for dropping fury (although my intuition tells me that it will more than make up for it,) and compounding power makes up for 100prec/ferocity. You actually get a lot by picking up IC in terms of utility/lockdown:
-40% reduced sword4 cd. So more dazes/stuns and therefore less incoming damage.
-20% reduced the cd of scepter block. Something that you couldn’t have before.
-40% reduced iLeap cd makes kiting in melee a complete joke. If you know how to use this skill defensively with such a short cd your opponents will start to wonder if they’re fighting a sword/x thief.
-You mentioned that you didn’t get anything good from 20% shatter cd, but you forgot you can use diversion more often with it. Distortion cd is good as well, but it’s hard to objectively compare to something like blink (see my issue with 20% manip cd below.)
-decoy cd as you stated
Here are some more issues that I have with regards to your reponse:
Do you have any reference comparing assassin’s amulet to berserker’s for mesmers? I understand you’re going for reliable sigil procs, but outside of builds that heavily rely on crit effects (fresh air ele) or can stack might, the consensus still seems to be that berserker’s will yield more damage. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/PvP-Amulet-Added/first
I’m also not sold on the idea that a (900 range) 24s blink is “so much more powerful” than 30s blink. Is there a specific situation/skill you’re trying to counter that happens to be in a 24s cd?
I understand your reasons for air runes. However, be aware that running them will make you especially vulnerable when being focused by 2+ players. The backlash damage may be enough to deter one player from focusing you, but another opponent may be able to capitalize on your unreliable stealth.
Your two points in chaos seem to be there because they’re “just what’s left over.”
I would advise taking those two points in chaos and another two points elsewhere and going 4 points into illusions and picking up 20% cd on all illusions and phantasmal haste. So the build would look like this:
(Taking away CS)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQRAsc7alknpRt1oxMNcrNiphgyyxJZgElO0pWA-TpQSgAA7PAWGAA
(or taking away one of the dueling traits)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQRAsc7alknpRt1oxMNcrNiphgyyxJdgEDKZoTA-TpQSgAA7PAWGAA
Comparing the 2nd build I linked with the one in your OP, you still have 20% cd on 4 sword skills, but now 40% cd on your pistol phantasm, not to mention a reduced decoy cd. Combined with PHaste, I think this outweighs the reduced blink cd, regen, and more.
I would also recommend pack runes over air runes because air runes can ruin your stealth. Furthermore, pack runes may allow you to have some fury on your phantasms if you want to go for longer range blink.