Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing Mesmer and love it. I’m starting an engineer to play with a friend who’s just starting.

I’d like to play condition damage, and I like having a fun mix of offense and defense (I play phantasms + stealth as a Mesmer)

Any suggestions on what kind of build or play style might be a good fit?

Thx!

My reflexes aren’t awesome either. Here’s the phantasm build I use

http://bit.ly/19cwK0i

Basically, I use stealth to hide while the phantasms do their work. The Prismatic Understanding not only lengthens the stealth, but it also gives some “free” blocks on attacks and reduced damage

I have beaten staff mesmers while using greatsword – and I’ve lost as well.

To me, the key thing is to stay targeted on the Mesmer. They will phase retreat a lot, and you need to pick them up again quickly. That plus plenty of stealth for me seems to work okay.

I had a lot of fun running duo the other night with a ranger. Maybe he was just a really good player, but we chewed through several camps and opponents.

I’m playing a phantasm build with a lot of stealth and prismatic understanding.

I picked this build because it has a lot of burst and a lot of survivability.

Playstyle is pretty simple in terms of getting phantasms out and letting them do a lot of the damage. With the bountiful interruption trait, there’s a bit of a sub-game trying to get interrupts. With the battle sigils and mirror blade, it’s possible to go above 10 might reasonably often.

The stealth makes the build very survivable.

I mostly play WvW now. The build works fine for soloing camps (on my mid-tier server) and I find I can help small groups and zergs as well.

Here’s the actual build http://bit.ly/19cwK0i

@Hexxen for what it’s worth – this is the build where I use pistol and veil together

http://bit.ly/19cwK0i

I find it really fun in WvW for anything from solo to zerg

I never tested it with eight conditions on me…

There’s both positioning and timing that you need to get right. I think I would find it difficult to pull off a full eight condition removal. Often when I have a ton of conditions on me, I also have cripple/immobilize/chill.

But I’m hopeful that I can get better at using it. I’m trying to make Veil a standard part of my build.

I did some limited testing. It seemed like I was able to get conditions removed standing next to the duelist and both of us close to the veil.

I have the duelist discipline trait, so in theory, each duelist shot is a 100% proc chance as a projectile. Without it, the chance is only 20% per shot I think.

I’m assuming the duelist change was that previously you could cast it from 1200 range even if you didn’t have it traited.

I did test having a traited duelist shoot through veil, and it does remove conditions. It’s a bit tricky to set up, but it works.

Wow – I’m really excited about Veil changing to a Light field. I’ve been really wanting to experiment with traited Duelist shooting through a Light field to see what happens for condition removal.

I have only fought a couple, but I seem to do okay. I’m doing a 20/20/30 build, but it’s a power/crit phantasm build (greatsword and scepter/pistol)

Like Osicat says, you need to use stealth to get distance.

I don’t always win. If I get stacked up in conditions and don’t have null field available, things are going to be bad

Thx Keenlam. I experimented with an interrupt build right after the last major patch. It was fun, and Halting Strike did hit pretty hard. But for me, the tradeoff is 15% damage for the phantasms. It just felt like the steady phantasm damage was worth more than the occasional spikes.

The way this build works now, you basically bring out the phantasms and block and dodge (and interrupt a bit). Then you stealth and let the phantasms do their work.

I may go back and try it again, I feel like I’m doing better with interrupts now than my original testing.

Thanks again for all the input!

I ended up going with two sigils of battle and a sigil of bloodlust. I also decided to go with a bountiful interruption.

Quick testing in Orr feels good. It wasn’t too hard to get over 10 stacks of might.

On sigils, we’ve nailed my issue – it doesn’t make sense to have a swap and an on-crit in the same set. In fact, I’m wondering if it makes sense to have a swap and an on-crit even on different sets. I’m assuming that if Sigil of Fire activates and then I swap weapons within 5 seconds, that I don’t get the on-swap stacks of might from Sigil of Battle because I’m still on cooldown.

So one possibility is to put Sigils of Strength on both sets because it apparently has only a 2 second cooldown. And then put sigil of bloodlust or perception on my scepter/pistol set.

I don’t think phantasms benefit from sigil of force or accuracy, or those would be easy choices.

It just feels like if I’m investing up to 55% or more crit chance that it’s worth getting an on-crit benefit. So I’m curious what other phantasm builds do.

In terms of the traits, Levitas, you have my problem nailed. I like Debilitating Dissipation, but I’m not cranking out clones like crazy. The traited greatsword means Mirror Blade can be cast every 6.5 seconds, and I basically cast it whenever it’s available.

I’m happy with the 20/20/30 build. I guess I’m mostly asking if anyone takes Chaotic Revival, Retaliatory Demise, or Mirror of Anguish with a phantasm build. I’ve basically been ignoring all of those choices.

I have been using this build for middle-tier-level WvW (I’m on Kaineng) http://bit.ly/159Jd2n

It feels fun and effective for everything from solo up to large group (30 v 30) fights.

I really only have two questions (however please let me know if there’s anything else you would suggest).

1) Sigils
I really like Sigil of Fire on the Greatsword. It triggers frequently because of the multi-target hits, and it adds valuable AoE damage. I also like Sigil of Battle on the Pistol as the Might is about a 5% damage boost. But I realize the cooldowns may be interfering, and they are almost certainly blocking Sigil of Generosity from triggering on the Scepter (Sigil of Battle creates a 9 second cooldown, and I tend to swap back to Greatsword as soon as possible.) I don’t think the Force and Accuracy sigils transfer to phantasms, so I’m thinking about putting Perception on the scepter. But I would love any suggestions for all the weapons. (In terms of condition removal, having Null Field seems to be sufficient for most single-opponent fights. So Generosity is not a must-have for me)

2) Master Trait in Chaos
I’m currently using Debilitating Dissipation. It seems effective because I know some of my clones are dying before the opponent goes down. But I really don’t do a good job of tracking it. There are several other good choices. I’m okay at interrupting with the GS wave (#5 attack) and the Pistol MB (#5), so Bountiful Interruption could be okay. But I would love any suggestions.

Thanks for the help!

I wonder if it’s a performance thing. If you look at the WvW battles, there are lots of built-in limits on numbers of targets to affect at once. But despite that, conditions are hitting many people. And things like changing might levels are dynamically changing how different stacks are ticking.

If you were looking at a combat log, you might want to see damage, healing and crowd control for you, any summoned allies, other party members, and their summoned allies.

I would love to have more data in the combat log, but there might be real performance tradeoffs.

Edit: LOL – started writing this before @Jamais posted, but was typing slowly. Same kind of thought

Everything about the scepter feels just a touch to slow. The auto-attack travels slowly. The block has a delay before the clone triggers. And the channeled attack has a pretty long delay before it starts doing it’s damage.

Still, it’s my preferred weapon to pair with the pistol because I prefer to fight from range. So it’s a matter of getting used to it, but it would be awesome if it were just slightly faster.

If you have a condition damage build, the torment on block can do a lot of damage.

@Fai – the conditions when fighting guards at camp never really bother me. The scouts blind and poison. I clear the blind by just hitting auto-attack, and I never worry about the poison.

The build does have null field (or I can swap in Arcane Thievery or Phantasmal Disenchanter), but I basically never use it when taking a camp unless I run into some opposition while I’m taking the camp. That’s the main reason it’s there. I also keep inventory open and can double-click on Lemongrass Poultry soup if I get a bunch of conditions and don’t have a removal available. The Generosity Sigil is so-so. Basically, if I use scepter 3, I get kittens (or more if I can line up multiple targets). So I can get it to proc more than “random”, but it’s definitely not predictable.

@esplen letting the phantasms do the work is mostly what I do. Since I’m soloing, I’m often feeling pretty urgent. So I’m trying to take out the whole camp and flip it in about two minutes and 30 seconds. Sometimes when I screw up, it takes much longer than that. So that’s one of the big reasons I’m wondering what builds people use to solo camps.

Thx

I mix time between helping small groups and soloing camps. This build has been a ton of fun for me because I can take a camp pretty quickly, help out in larger fights, and even escape sometimes (though I tend to stay and fight).

Build link: http://bit.ly/159Jd2n

The fighting style is pretty simple. Put out one of each phantasm on the target and then dodge and use range attack/clone generation/block skills. Interrupt with wave or bullet when possible to stop heals.

If things go poorly, use a stealth and let the phantasms do their work.

In a group, veil when entering a fight and mass invis at the right moments are just really fun to turn the tide of a battle. Even in larger scale fights, getting both the duelist and the zerker out combined with greatsword auto-attack or scepter 3 can let you hit quite a few targets and burst down an enemy pretty quickly.

I’m curious what other people who like to solo camps use as their Mesmer build.

Thanks

Prismatic Understanding – maybe just as much because it caused me to focus more on stealth as for what it does

Duelists Discipline – duelist is my favorite phantasm, plus longer range and more frequent magic bullet is good

Greatsword Training – my other favorite weapon and phantasm

Phantasmal Fury – crit chance for phantasms is awesome

Just got a chance to watch your videos @osicat – great stuff as always!

I did a little more experimenting with Veil and I get the idea of how to get two stealths now – thx very much – that probably makes it worth using.

One more question if anyone knows – is there a list of skills that break stealth? I’m wondering about using Arcane Thievery from stealth and hoping it’s not considered an attack…

I tried using Veil twice in some testing, but didn’t seem to do very well.

I’m assuming you need to cast, run over it, wait for stealth to expire, and then run over it again before veil expires. With PU, you get 3 seconds of stealth and veil lasts 6 seconds. So it seems like there should be enough time. But I was having a bit of trouble pulling it off reliably.

Is there any other trick to getting two uses?

Couple of other questions
– I tried having the Duelist shoot through the veil. He’s traited for 100% projectile proc, but it seemed like I got different amounts of confusion stacks. I’m not running a condition build, but it would be nice to get everything I can from this. Am I expecting too much to think I should get 8 stacks?

- If a projectile both goes over Veil and the target is inside a Null Field, should they get two stacks of confusion? Or can a single projectile only proc one combo field (even if multiple fields don’t overlap)? If I could put 16 stacks of confusion on, it would be at least somewhat interesting.

Thx for the help!

I mostly play solo or 2-3 person WvW. I’m doing a phantasm build with Zerker and Duelist.

I want to use Veil since I’m invested in Prismatic Understanding. But the cooldown is so long it just doesn’t feel worth it.

If it truly was a light field, it might be interesting as another way to remove conditions. But it’s actually ethereal.

Any tips from anyone using veil solo or in small groups?

Add something to Mind Stab (Greatsword #3). I’d be happy with a tiny bit of life steal or maybe a random chance of a short condition like cripple, vulnerability or weakness (there’s not much “chaos” in the greatsword).

Make the auto-attack projectile on scepter travel 50% faster

Scepter isn’t exactly what I want, but I currently like it as my best option for main-hand power weapon that can be used from range. Of course, it’s the only main-hand weapon that has all of its skills work from range…

The auto-attack is frustratingly slow when you’re at 900 range, but it does continue to do damage and will spawn a clone eventually.

I actually like the block. It works both if someone gets close and if someone is at range. For sure, it’s tricky if you’re getting attacked by many people. As a power build, the torment damage isn’t that high (about 1400 for non-moving and another 1400 for moving). But the torment seems like one more thing I can use to make my opponent’s life more complicated.

And that’s really the benefit of the confusion on attack #3 for me as well – giving the opponent another thing to think about. The damage on attack #3 is okay – it’s quite nice if you can hit multiple targets with it.

Generally, when I switch to my scepter/pistol set, I’m looking for most of the benefit to come from pistol. The scepter skills are harder to use, but I’m actually liking it better than using sword. I’m sure I’m in the minority on this point Whatever happens with scepter, I hope it at least stays as viable as it currently is as a ranged, main-hand, power damage weapon.

I like it a lot. I’m using it plus scepter/pistol with the specific goal of mostly fighting from range in WvW.

Many of the main points have been made, but here are a couple notes.

- Attack 1 pierces and is not a projectile. The creativity in using it is to try to hit multiple targets while managing range.

- Attack 2 has might stacks as mentioned. Since you often do supportive builds, this is nice (whether you get the might yourself and then share or share by throwing the sword in and bouncing off allies). I find that sometimes I’m able to get the clone to create at a target on top of a wall in WvW with this attack even when I don’t have a great angle – kind of creative.

- Attack 3 is so-so. The interesting part is trying to hit multiple targets. If you have sigil of fire on and you hit multiple targets, it gives you multiple changes to proc. And they are all close enough to be affected.

- Berserker is great phantasm. I don’t know that there’s so much creativity here. Sometimes you can knock someone into a wall and then unleash berserker on them. But it’s not clear there’s a lot of creativity with all the phantasms.

- Attack 5 wave is fun. I’ve knocked people off of cliffs with it. I’ve knocked people off catapults. I’ve knocked over defenders trying to run into a tower. It has a reasonable chance to interrupt skills.

Overall, greatsword seems like the best AoE option.

I was soloing a supply camp when two enemies charged in. I assumed I was toast, but managed to lead them away from the camp and actually downed them both. They sent me a party invite and I chatted a bit as I tried to finish taking the camp. Then their friend came in and took me out while I was busy with the last guards. We had a good laugh and wished each other well.

Thx Boss – I should have looked at your build more closely. It’s definitely a better implementation of what I had in mind. I’ve been so focused on just phantasm builds that I’ve sort of skipped past all the condition builds previously.

Do you find that this build can take down an opponent pretty quickly? One of the things I really like about the phantasm build is that it can easily apply several thousands of points of damage in a few seconds.

Thx – I definitely don’t know my way around condition builds very well. I think the ideal case is to have a couple staff clones up and hopefully be getting burns and bleeds from them.

I realize I forgot to put in the food and crystal, so here’s an updated link (and I swapped the signet for veil).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNAW7flwzauXUzgGb9IhpHBH5A/kCoLdSKK9rB-j0xAYNBZaBMBKQ5wioxWNLiGrSmIqWdjJEwi1A-w

The interesting thing is that Torment gets up to a potential 14K damage if someone has it on and moves for the full 14 seconds. For sure, the thing that isn’t clear to me is how much damage really would get applied here from the conditions.

I thought I read somewhere that 10 seconds is the maximum duration possible for conditions – is that true? Thx for the feedback!

Out traveling again for work, so wanted to toss out a build idea to see if anyone is doing something like this.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNAW7flwzauXUTsGb9IhpHBH5A/kCoLdSKK9rB-j0xAYNBZaBMBKQ5wioxWNLiGrSmIqWdjBA-w

I really don’t know Condition builds very well, but the basic idea here is that you apply several conditions and release the iWarlock – then stealth to let them do their work. When you need to be out of stealth for a bit, you can drop the radiation field to create a “safe” place – at least from melee.

The hydromancy procs on weapon swap plus the cripples on clone death will hopefully allow you to get distance from attackers and pressure them to move. Hopefully, you can land Torment with the scepter block to really put the opponent in a tough spot.

Anyone playing something like this? If so, how does it work? Thx!

I really enjoy this class. I have a friend who plays warrior and ranger. It seems like neither of them are as much fun. Here are a few things I like the most:

- Great community – you can get great answers and support on this forum
- Build flexibility – despite the changes in the last patch, it seems that many builds/variants are viable
- A high potential skill ceiling – even playing the “easiest” phantasm Mesmer build, it seems like there are tons of things you can continue to learn to be more effective
- A viable strategy for every opponent – seems like most solid builds have some way to fight everything – it might take a lot of skill, but it’s possible
- Effective solo or in a group – and many times, you can use the same equipment and traits
- Really interesting mechanics – illusions/shatters, mantras, interesting elites

Maybe the best thing for me is that I just frequently get moments where I really get to smile. Whether I laugh a little when another player starts chasing my clones (and I still screw up and go after clones sometimes) or I get to use mass invisibility on a small group at just the right moment in WvW or I get to pop a feedback or timewarp in a dungeon, I really smile a lot while I play this class.

This is definitely the most enjoyable class I’ve played in any MMO and the folks on the forum are a big part of it – so thx!

You can see all the on-crit cooldowns here http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil#On-critical-hit

I believe the condition is transferred exactly as it is on you. I would guess that if the opponent has some condition duration reduction capability, it will get applied when the condition is transferred. But I don’t know for sure.

I use both sigils, so I can give you a little feedback.

Sigil of Generosity has a 10 second cooldown. So it can only trigger once every 10 seconds. On-crit sigils share a cooldown, so if you end up using more than one, you will potentially miss the proc (e.g. if sigil of fire critted on your sword and you swapped weapons and got an immediate crit on the GS, you might not get your generosity crit).

It appears that the on-crit effects can happen on any hit caused by that weapon. So with GS, it can have a chance to proc on any of the skills and any of the targets effected (even the pierced targets). But I don’t think it can proc on the attacks of the phantasms.

I don’t think I would ever rely on Generosity as my only condition remover. But I’m not good enough yet to really track how often I dump conditions via Generosity.

For reference, here’s the build I’m using in WvW. http://bit.ly/1anJbWw

It’s a similar phantasm-focused approach, but I’m using the signets as two on-demand condition removers (and then clicking on Lemongrass Poultry soup if I get a ton of conditions on me).

The scepter is not as good as the GS in terms of proc’ing crits. It’s slower and has less range on the auto-attack. I’ve considered swapping and putting the Generosity in the GS. Sigil of Fire helps quite a bit for me when I’m soloing camps, so I would hate to totally lose it.

It’s not as reliable as some of the other options and it costs a bit of gold, but Sigil of Generosity is another option for conditions. It has a 60% chance to transfer on a critical hit. Sigil of Purity is similar but only removes the condition.

And as Pyro has pointed out in a few threads, the Lemongrass Poultry soup reduces condition duration by 40%. So you can have it on all the time or keep your inventory open and double click it in a fight.

I think you have to look at the damage you give up to get that. I don’t use warden, but I use the duelist. I assume about 6 crits for 50 damage per tick (300 total) for 6 seconds (I have 20% condition duration). This is 1800 of “free” damage. But the duelists damage on it’s own is the big hitter – it can be in the 4000 – 6000 range (I’m at around 80% crit damage). So I would need to see how much of that I would lose to increase the condition damage, but so far, it hasn’t looked attractive.

Probably the biggest key for me is that I’m using this in WvW and I want pretty good toughness and health. So I’m not running berserker armor – I’m using all Sentinel and Soldier armor. So I think if you pick Rampager’s, the other key analysis is whether you hit both your toughness and vitality goals by going down that path.

Agree that the speeding up the auto-attack would be awesome. I use scepter in a power build, so I don’t need the auto-attack to add a condition.

Also, I made a note in the other scepter thread about getting 4000 damage on some scepter blocks. I can’t replicate this now. I did more testing in Orr and the results stayed consistently around 800 base and 1900 when I crit.

I’ve had the block on the scepter hit for 4k when I was testing it in Orr (must be a crit and I’m running with 80% crit damage). This is after the patch where they said they cut the damage in half. And on a successful block, I think you get a minimum of about 1500 for the torment condition (assuming the target doesn’t move).

Listened to both parts – great show as always.

I liked the build philosophy part a lot. I think the nuance about there not being really viable signet, interrupt or mantra builds (meaning a build where the whole focus is on that mechanism) is fair. I’ve been trying a build with two signets (inspiration and midnight) and one of the traits (cleanse on signet activation) and it has felt like a nice compliment to the rest of my build.

Maybe you would consider adding a segment to the show called “play my build” where people submit builds and you guys agree to play them for a bit and give feedback. You could do it with the guest’s build whenever you have a guest.

Keep up the great work!

I’ve been having a lot of fun with scepter in my current build (phantasm – power build). I generally prefer to fight from range, and my scepter is paired with a pistol. So when I switch to that set, my priority is typically getting out the duelist. Then I have block or magic bullet if an opportunity exists and I can use confusing images if neither of those skills looks optimal yet. In the small group fights, 1v1’s, and solo camp capturing that I do, I seem to be able to land the confusing images a lot (even with the slow windup). In an ideal case, I’ll block a guard who is attacking me and then walk backwards with confusing images on and catch one or two more in the beam. Usually, there’s enough to do that my autoattack is only going to trigger a couple of times before I swap back. With mainhand sword, I used mostly just use it for blurred frenzy. I wasn’t very good with the clone-leap-swap. I slotted a sigil of generosity in the scepter, so I also use it as part of my condition controlling strategy.

I can’t say it’s great for everyone or that it’s better than a mainhand sword. I can only say that I enjoy it and it feels like it works well for me with the way I play.

I think that may be the thing I’ve learned the most so far – you have to try things out and decide what works for you. I would encourage people to try the scepter – and all the other weapons.

This is the build I’ve been running in WvW lately. It’s a lot of fun for me in groups or solo. It looks similar to quite a few other power/stealth builds – but has a couple differences.

http://bit.ly/1anJbWw

A lot of the armor I use is Sentinels, so my health is about 19,000 and my power is slightly lower. Otherwise, the numbers in the build website are basically right.

Weapons: Greatsword – Scepter/Pistol

When running into a fight with a group, tcast Mass Invis then use Signet of Inspiration to give to allies. In the few fights I’ve been in with groups, this has been very effective.

Solo I will sometimes swap out Mass Invis for a summonable elite (like Mistfire Wolf) for when I’m trying to take camps.

II like this build becasue it can hit really kitten a consistent basis while having decent defense. The phantasms will crit a lot and for significant damage with a 73% crit chance and 79% crit damage bonus. If you have both Berserker and Duelist out, it creates a lot of pressure.

Perhaps the most fun part of this build for me is the boons and boon duration without relying on food or runes. I really get a kick out of seeing what Signet of Inspiration or Prismatic Understanding gives me. I’m enjoying the chaotic nature of the Mesmer in this respect. And I like that the 40% boon duration tends to keep those boons around for a while. Occasionally this even helps me with my Swiftness needs (which I normally solve by swapping in a focus when it’s time to run across the map).

Anything you would change here if you were mostly doing solo supply camps and small groups in WvW?

Thx!

I tried a simple test for this in the mists tonight

I had my iduelist put bleed stacks on a golem and then hit him with the bounce from mirror blade. The might indicator showed on iDuelist, but the bleed ticks stayed at the same damage as before the might was applied. So it seems like it doesn’t work in that case.

Thx to everyone who has helped with answers.

I’m out traveling, so theorycrafting instead of actually experimenting in game.

I’m mulling over using torch in a power – crit build. I’m already using Scepter in my power build, and I’m comfortable with having some “non-optimized” condition damage.

Here are a few questions:
- Do you need to get to the full 4 seconds of duration to get a fourth burn tick? With 30% condition duration, I could get to 3.9 seconds and it wouldn’t be much of a hit on my build. I thought I read that someone was getting the last tick when they got above .75 seconds.

- Does Sigil of Smoldering really not increase burn duration (this is what it says in the bugs section on the wiki)? http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Smoldering

- How does The Prestige damage and Phantasm Mage damage scale with power? Looking at the numbers in the wiki, I would expect the mage to hit for about half of the swordsman’s damage per hit (but a much slower attack) – so I’m guessing 750 to 1500 with crit. And it seems like the damage from the actual attack of The Prestige would be in the range of 300 – 750. I’ll check real numbers when I get home, but would love to understand if that’s in the ballpark.

- Does Cleansing Conditions remove only condition per cast? (The wiki says this is the case.) I’m assuming this works for both the prestige and casting iMage.

- Does the Phantasmal Mage attack track or can it be dodged?

Generally, I’d love feedback if someone has tried going down this path. Mostly, I’m interested in The Prestige for the stealth. I’m also curious to have a blast finisher and more AOE effects. But I would like to avoid trying to swap to condition damage gear.

Thx for any insights!

@keenlam I am currently using Greatsword and Scepter / Pistol. The Magic Bullet does quite well. It has a short cast time, and it actually gives two chances to interrupt if there are two targets nearby (both Stun and Daze can interrupt).

But basically, what I found was, even adding a few more interrupting options, I wasn’t getting what seemed to be a great result. It certainly can be from my skill limits, but basically as I looked through the combat logs, I saw few entries for Halting Strikes. So I swapped it out for the 15% phantasm damage. That basically felt like about 600 additional damage per phantasm attack in exchange for a pretty infrequent 2000 points of damage from Halting Strikes.

Then I decided to give up on Bountiful Interruption. Again, it’s mostly from the unpredictable ability to get the interrupts. In exchange, I think there are a couple traits in the Chaos line that are more powerful for me.

I’d love to hear how others are doing with interrupting, but I’ve moved on to new experiments

Thx. I’ve been working on a combo where I start with the berserker and then do mirror blade, and it seems like the might is applying. But I haven’t tested the damage numbers (would be great to get targets somewhere outside of the mists that allowed crits to happen).

I’ve been playing with transferring my boons to phantasms.

I’ve read a couple times that Might on a phantasm doesn’t affect it (but Might on the Mesmer does affect the phantasm).

It looks like when I actively transfer the boons to the phantasms (with the signet) that they actually are working.

Which ones actually affect them?

I’ve stopped experimenting with interrupts.

I went through combat logs after fights, and Halting Strikes just wasn’t showing often in the WvW fights.

I imagine a Staff and Focus build when fighting in groups could get pretty good procs. But I mostly roam solo.

It’s nice to have an interrupt to stop a heal every now and then, but from my experimenting, I think it’s not worth building around given how I like to play.

Good to hear more experience. It’s because it’s unreliable that I’m trying to learn what people are actually trying and how it’s working.

I think that you probably don’t want to create a build totally around interrupts. I have three “investments” in interrupts in this build:
- Halting strikes – I’m on the fence – it’s averaging about 2000 damage – but I may well trade it out for giving phantasms 15% more damage. Still, 2000 damage added on “for free” is nice
- Bountiful interruption – I’m not getting 20 stacks of might in most fights, but I’m usually getting 5 – 10 plus a couple other boons
- Mantra of distraction – it makes a big difference in a fight when you stop a heal. 1v1 or taking camps, it’s probably worth it for me. I’m not great at anything beyond 1v1 anyway, so it’s hard to say if there’s another utility that would totally change that.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who’s giving feedback on what they have tried and how it works. I get a lot of benefit when people who have higher skill levels thank I do try things out – it helps me set expectations on what a build might do.

Thanks for the feedback. It really helps to hear what others are doing and how it’s working out.

Just a couple quick notes on specifically how I’m playing this so that others can compare.

I have four main ways to interrupt:
– Greatsword 5 (wave)
– Pistol 5 (magic bullet)
– Shatter F3
– Mantra of distraction

For me, the key thing is that I’m going to use the first two skills anyways. I always work using those skills into my rotation (at the very least before I swap weapons).

The F3 shatter is tough for me. It works fine if there’s a GS clone next to the target. Realistically, I need to get better at thinking about when I use it. I’ve been experimenting with using it early (leading off with Mirror Blade and trying the F3 shatter before I cast berserker).

The distraction mantras are great because I can use them any time. I try to use them when there’s a clear tell. But I also use them when I’m in “panic” mode. Like a thief unstealths and I’m trying to get a phantasm out before he re-stealths. I try to throw in the distraction at the same time.

So far, I’ve had some success. I’ve one some 1v1 fights playing this way, but the majority of how I’m playing is no different than it was before. I was always using the “interrupt” skills before.

I agree that many skills are too fast to intentionally interrupt. I’m just wondering how it’s working for people in real-world experience that are trying this.

One interesting thing about this strategy is that, especially combined with Prismatic Understanding, it does create the possibility of lots of boons to share with a team if you’re running in a group.

Anyone else actively trying to play interrupt in WvW? Thx!

For what it’s worth, I’ve been having ok success in WvW trying out interrupts. It’s so hard to judge how effective it really is because I’m not consistent enough and not reviewing the logs constantly. Against guards, it works well. I’m able to see the heals and get my might stacks consistently. I’ve won a few fights against players, but it’s hard to tell if this was really the deciding factor.

For what it’s worth, I changed the build to pick up Prismatic Understanding. It’s fun to mix in decoy and mass invis sometimes http://bit.ly/17g5TMB

I killed about 30 mobs in Orr to try to get the feel of this build. I was probably able to interrupt about 2/3 of them. Definitely the 1000 – 3000 damage I did from Halting Strikes wasn’t enough to kill any of them. However, getting 5 stacks of might helped with my other damage. And putting 8 stacks of vulnerability on also helped. The kill speed felt slightly slower than the phantasm build I was using, but I was getting used to the feel of this.

In WvW, I mostly do camps. The guards all have a clear tell when they heal, so I can interrupt them regularly (and I did a few camps to try this – but there were always others there). While doing my quick testing, I did run into a couple of other players. I saw in my combat log that I landed a couple of interrupts based on the Halting Strikes damage. But these fights were all 2 or 3 to 1 with the numbers on my side, so it’s hard to say how it plays on even footing. Certainly helped stop a thief by interrupting him once.

I don’t have any experience trying this in a larger scale fight in WvW. I’m hoping there are others trying out interrupt builds to see if they are viable.

I had experimented with interrupt builds before this. To Pyro’s point in another thread, it’s hard to stop fast-casting skills. What I found in my limited testing was that you can sometimes anticipate a skill. For example, against mobs, if you throw Mirror Blade and then shatter with F3 basically immediately, it often interrupts. My other big learning was that I need fast interrupts because I don’t always notice things quickly – so that’s why I have the 3x mantra of distraction in this build.

Anyone else giving interrupts a real try? Thx!