Guild Wars 2

Since you mentioned portal, it occurred to me that it’s application of Super Speed and Resistance could also have a QoL fix to only apply the boons/buffs to those who actually go through the portal instead of its current iteration. That would make it more in-line with the design and purpose of the skill.

Hey everyone, I’d like to discuss the synergy of Veil and Temporal Enchanter.

Veil – Create a wall that grants stealth to you and your allies.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Veil

Temporal Enchanter – Glamour skills last longer. When you cast a glamour, allies near the glamour gain resistance and super speed.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Temporal_Enchanter

Currently, when you cast Veil with the Temporal Enchanter trait, the added Super Speed and Resistance is only granted to players standing directly on top of the veil during creation, and not those who run through the Veil shortly afterwards.

I’d like the propose a QoL change for Veil, when this trait is equipped, to grant Super Speed and Resistance upon application of Hide in Shadows. Although this would most likely be considered a buff, I believe that this change help Veil better fulfil its purpose from a gameplay design perspective.

Please discuss.

Pretty funny scrolling through the responses. There’s a lot of salt coming from players on DH and AR hating on DB because they don’t abide by some honor code. I think all of that goes out the window by virtue of PPTing and unless you’re openly willing to scrim and GvG other guilds you have no merit to complain. Anyways, back on topic…

If you are a solo-roamer, transferring to Dragonbrand is a GOOD option because you avoid all the “PU condi yolo swag” roamers on DB that other servers complain about. Transferring to a server that already has skilled roamers means that you won’t ever be able to fight those players. If you are looking for a roaming guild, Darkhaven has several of those, among them [Sold], [VOID], and the recent remnants of [XOXO]. Anvil Rock only has one- a guild called [KAOS]. Dragonbrand has two small ones, [GFC] and [Yaks], and potentially more as FA transfers come in.

If you only run and find enjoyment with zergs during NA, it is UNCERTAIN if transferring is a good idea. We recently received three NA guilds from Fort Aspenwood that you could run with, but I can’t comment much beyond that. It’s too early to tell. Before those guilds arrived Dragonbrand didn’t have consistent pugmanders and only one hardcore NA guild.

OP I think you should be selfish and choose the server that best fits what you want to do in WvW and has the best infrastructure to help you do it. I’ve seen good things from all the servers in this tier and I don’t think you can go wrong either way. Transferring to Anvil Rock would go the furthest to keeping the tier balanced, but I think you should expand your search to servers in T4 as well.

P.S. You won’t find any roamers on DH/AR/DB actually solo/duo-roaming during NA prime. Most of the actual roaming, when players aren’t glued to their zergs, happens during late NA when tags from all servers have clocked out.

Both Darkhaven and Dragonbrand are bandwagon servers that are starting to make comebacks. You’ll find more roaming guilds on DH but DB is going to hit T4 in a couple weeks so you’ll have better fights. I don’t know very much about Ehmry Bay.

Puck.9612:

expandas.7051:

Kovu’s got it pretty much spot on. Dragonbrand lacks NA-TZ raiding guilds and pugmanders that can compete with the 20-mans from other servers. There are definitely pugs and roamers about, but let’s be real- nobody wants to die and people WILL fight from the safety of walls. I honestly can’t blame them since DH and AR never do anything without a group of at least 15.

Aren’t you the guy with the spy account on AR that was caught destroying golems parked at spawn about a month ago?

No, I’m the guy that chases down bad rangers (read: all of them).

apharma.3741:

If a server had really good out of hours coverage but kinda meh coverage in prime time and was rated medium for population then wouldn’t that make it a great one to transfer to in order to build up an NA prime time?

I know the server I’m on (EU) really suffers in our night time and early morning coverage and that’s what’s really demoralising. Seeing everything you fought hard to upgrade and defend get wiped away to a karma train.

Before my guild was bought by DB I was commanding Maguuma’s OCX shift, so I can definitely empathize with your frustration. Dragonbrand’s had a few bandwagon pushes in the past because of the off-hours coverage, but none of them were long-term successful at getting the server to T1. This has understandably made people hesitant to go the server again, even if all the stars seemed to line up.

What is interesting, however, is how the server reorganized itself after the last push that resulted in the exodus of many EU & NA WvW guilds to HoD. Server leadership is communal now instead of being dictated by one individual. The community, which was already very friendly and open, has strengthened because they’ve gone through these rough patches together. So as strange as these comments might sound I’d honestly say Dragonbrand is one of the better transfer options for guilds that are rebuilding.

Pros:
Friendly & open community
Dirt cheap transfer cost
Stable off-hours coverage

Cons:
Very few raiding guilds during EU-NA
Pugs don’t use TeamSpeak
Monkey Shinezz

There’s a decent roaming population on Darkhaven and I see a ton of Dragonbrand roamers on DB BL. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a solo roamer from Anvil Rock though, so it’s probably a good choice if you’re looking for fights.

Kovu’s got it pretty much spot on. Dragonbrand lacks NA-TZ raiding guilds and pugmanders that can compete with the 20-mans from other servers. There are definitely pugs and roamers about, but let’s be real- nobody wants to die and people WILL fight from the safety of walls. I honestly can’t blame them since DH and AR never do anything without a group of at least 15.

for reference: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Condi-pu-build/first#post5389446

10/10 would read again.

Let’s look at it piece by piece. Nobody want to die, so they either group up for safety in numbers or “get good”. For some, “getting good” means improving your skill level. For others, it means playing a build that has a higher skill floor- being more effective with less input of effort and skill. The number of people adhering to the latter far exceeds the former.

As others have already pointed out, the incredible amount of sustain and escapes that condition builds provide make it a no-brainer for most solo/duo-roamers to pick up. Why NOT use X build that gives you both great pressure, durability, and stealth in one package? Yet the very same condition builds that roamers and small groups despise becomes less and less effective as group size scales up.

Each group size that exists in WvW is usually countered by the next larger size. Roamers die to roaming parties. Roaming parties die to guild groups and zergs. Guild groups and zergs die to each other depending on their size and skill. Map queues only stalemate each other until boredom and IRL priorities set in. It’s worth mentioning that since roaming groups and havoc teams usually NEED to have everyone at 100%, losing a single member to a zerg often means resetting proper at spawn.

I think we’re seeing a trend in WvW with group sizes becoming more and more polarized at the high and low ends. Almost every opponent I encounter (I am on DB) is either solo/duo-roaming as a PU Mesmer/glass thief or running with their pugmanders/guildies in groups of 8-15. Guilds from both DH and AR tag up and often number over 25. How is a small roaming group or solo/duo-roamer going to compete with those numbers when nobody wants to split up?

I say the following not to mean any disrespect, but I honestly think that most of the small group roaming guilds you see just aren’t good enough to survive the new realities of engagement. Roamers that make up these guilds tend to be selfish, independent-thinking players that seek damage and not sustain. As the frustration of getting beaten by other roaming guilds, raid guilds, and zergs adds up, people fairweather. They’ll join their own zergs, until recently transfer up a tier so they have more teammates to use as crutches for their own inability to fight, run to spvp for quick thrills, and then complain on the PvF forums about how everyone is running “cheese” builds and “blobbing” up.

After two years of stagnant objected-based WvW play I bet most of these former roamers have either taken to these outs, switched to spvp, or quit the game. The number of guilds that are still willing to put in the effort to improve, theorycraft new builds and group compositions, manage a WvW roster with all the drama and personalities associated with it, and actually possess the skill to win outnumbered fights is far and few between.

Anyways, I want to put in a word for my team and do my part to keep roaming alive. Get Fresh Crew [GFC] is recruiting for WvW havoc and small group roaming. We transferred to Dragonbrand to find fights and our roots come from the predominant Battlefield 4 competitive team, Team Symthic. We have new matchups and fresh faces to fight every week in Silver, and the transfer cost to get here is only 85g.

Thanks for reading.

Honestly, there’s only a handful of roaming/small group guilds in T5. The vast majority of players you’ll come across will be running with their team’s zergs. This is true for almost every server in Silver. The difference with these lower tiers is that the impact that an individual player or small group can have on the outcome of the fight is much greater. The fights, when they do happen, are at a smaller scale. Opponents aren’t as skilled IMO in Silver as they are in T2/T3, but because fights are more intimate and dependent on skill, it feels GREAT getting through that nice 3v3 or pug v pug.

A lot of the criticism you’ll see leveled against the server is because of the strong off-hours population during SEA. I understand why people are upset, having defended and pugmanded on Mag during OCX last year, but you really can’t blame people for wanting to play with their friends. Other complaints, e.g., siege spam, condi roamers, etc., are no different than what you see on other servers.

Whether all of this sounds like something you’d be interested in, that’s up to you. It might be helpful if you told us when you usually play.

Get Fresh Crew [GFC] is looking for experienced roamers to join us. We specialize in small group roaming and havoc play in WvW, and are located on Dragonbrand. You can usually find us solo/duo-roaming, tailing zergs, and ninjaing t3 keeps. We’re looking for teammates that aren’t afraid of challenges, strive for self-improvement, and take pride in theorycrafting.

TeamSpeak and microphone use is required.

If you’re interested, please contact darktan.3214 or expandas.7051.

Here is the community Teamspeak info: dragonbrand.verygames.net:50059

As for guilds, there’s a lot of options out there depending on your commitment level and skill. There’s EDGE, PDF, and GOTL, just to name a few. Most of the guilds you’ll find are PvX and fairly laidback. One of the more recent guilds that have transferred to DB, LORD, seems to be more WvW-focused and runs meta builds.

Since you mentioned havoc, check out Ouruboros Knights [Ok]. They usually run between 5-10 players. If you’re interested in small group roaming, shoot me a mail in-game.

Buffy.9246:

May want to transfer again. Db is a sea server now since their na jumped ship to hod

Old news is old. Apparently those folks are trying to make their way back.

What kind of WvW content do you do and what time zone do you usually play in?

I think we dueled a couple nights ago. Pretty strong build, beat me consistently on a vanilla shatter spec. The only weak point IMO is the heal skill. If it weren’t for the Distortion & cleanse on cast I’d recommend ditching it for Ether Feast. That said, if any build can make signet heal viable for PvP, this is it.

Since Air still works off a five second ICD, I’d pick Fire over it unless you’re dueling. As for alternatives, Hydromancy is pretty nice on GS to connect that PB-GS2. Double energy is still pretty handy regardless of what you decide. Hobbling + Condi Food + Imagined Burden makes for an interesting kiting build.

From my experience currently playing against GoM during NA prime, they definitely have some active guilds and tags running around. There’s usually a group of ~20-30 running together on EBG but very few roamers if any. Perhaps the other time zones are more barren, but the server doesn’t strike me as a “ghost town”. Hope that helps.

Nice catch. I think it’s because I assumed there would kittenarges for all scenarios. How about this:

411 hps untraited —> 381 hps untraited (13.75s)
616 hps harmonious mantras —> 533 hps harmonious mantras (14.75s)
615 hps restorative mantras —> 570 hps restorative mantras (13.75s)
820 hps both traits —> 709 hps both traits (14.75s)

Quick update with the 7/28/2015 patch. Due to the way Mantra cooldowns have been reverted, the time it takes to execute a MoR heal chain back-to-back has been increased from 12.75s to 14.75s. These numbers don’t include healing prism.

411 hps untraited —> 355 hps untraited
616 hps harmonious mantras --> 532 hps harmonious mantras
615 hps restorative mantras —> 532 hps restorative mantras
820 hps both traits --> 709 hps both traits

Because immediate recasts of MoR are no longer possible, burst healing has been reduced by 10.5k health, a reduction of 57% heal throughput.

To summarize, MoR is still the most effective sustained heal for our class, but if you don’t trait for it other options like Ether Feast are on the table.

From a PvE perspective you’ll still want MoR for the multiplier and extra Mender’s Purity, but these changes crippled MoR synergy with Restorative Mantras. Signet of the Ether and Mantra of Pain are more competitive as a result, but that’s a moot point since they’re already the standard for solely DPS builds.

If you’re an sPvPer, taking MoR for most builds is suicide. The liability of the cast time and the limited burst healing makes Signet of the Ether better for dueling/bunker play, Mirror better for consistency, and Ether Feast dominant with DE builds.

For WvW (my main game mode), Mantra use among roamers will likely be relegated to specific interrupt builds. Small group roaming builds will probably revert back to vanilla shatter specs, and the effectiveness of Mantra-based zerging builds will go down the tube in favor of glamour bots.

I might redo the numbers to account for the healing prism changes, but will probably wait until after the dust has settled.

Not sure about PvE but I was using a glamour based dueling build with Radiance runes pre-6/23 patch. Can confirm that the duration bonus works with chaos armor. You’ll see a lot more utility and synergy for large-scale WvW applications though.

I run FotM 50s and the occasional Arah when I’m not busy with small group roaming. Level with me for a bit.

Current Ele DPS is a staggering 23k DPS. That’s a good 50% more than almost every other class aside from Engineer. For a Mesmer running in an ideal group composition of 3 eles and a warrior, you have a COMPARATIVE advantage traiting into a build oriented around reflects, crowd control, and support. This is the build that I use: http://intothemists.com/guides/5916-gfc_fractal_cc_mesmer

The DPS delta between my support build (Dom/Duel/Insp) with PB procs and a pure DPS build (Dom/Duel/Illu) was around 2k DPS (~13% decrease) but the tradeoff gets you AoE heals, AoE cleanses, AoE distortion, reflects for days, and interrupts for days (good for defiance stripping).

P.S. Try PB on Baron von Scrufflebutt!

Just a friendly PSA that Siege Masters in World vs World maps will sell you Alpha Siege Golem Blueprints for 100 Badges of Honor under the second merchandise tab. At a current selling rate of ~70s, selling alphas are by far the most profitable way to convert your badges to gold (roughly 60c per badge). You can also take this a step further by upgrading those Alphas to Omegas (roughly 40s per skill/hero point).

Links:

• https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Alpha_Siege_Golem_Blueprints
• https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Omega_Siege_Golem_Blueprints

How low does phantasm uptime need to be for a GS4+2+3+F1 shatter rotation out-DPS a sword-based phantasm spec? Assuming 25 stacks of might, 25 stacks of vuln, fury, double banners, EA.

What is current Guardian DPS assuming 25 might, 25 vuln, fury, double banners, EA? With quickness?

edit: 14k – http://imgur.com/a/ncGxx#4

I’ve been running testing this zerg build with a couple of friends: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8dl0nhq0YBawCNQtGLpG05Sie1JHQJCQ5HWeBA-TVyAABW8AAkUJIAXAAb2fwLlfWq+je6Ga4IAwxBBgUAeN1C-w

Mantras provide plenty of active clears and stability (5 stacks) to the melee train. Signets and iInspiration provides strong distortion uptime and boon share potential. Imagined Burden and Protected Phantasms allow you to cleave from range, and maintain 14 stacks of might ooc.

IMO if you really want to be a glamour-bot, you need to grab PU for that 4s veil duration, and 10s MI.

What does your group composition look like? That build doesn’t really have many sources of might to play off of, and you’ll probably want the in-combat swiftness the Pack runes provide.

Gear-wise, you’ll want to slot as much berserker’s as you’re comfortable with. I would recommend getting a full set of berserker’s armor and then adding ascended soldier’s trinkets. As you become more comfortable with the build in WvW you can slowly swap these out for berserker’s trinkets.

@Zenith: I don’t think there there would ever be an application for this in PvE until Chronomancer gets here.

@Excite: They wiki is wrong. Each phantasm shattered reduces phantasm cool downs by 2s.

I did some duels in PvP earlier with the test build. Observations:

Running into similar issues as a mantra setup. You need stealth access to cover phantasm spawns and blinds are a PitA. Final build wound up being S/P & GS with more or less a pre-patch 44006 setup with empowered illusions and phantasmal fury.

I’ll see if my guildies uploaded anything tomorrow. In the mean time for anyone out there looking at the trait, just play it like standard shatter but with a lot more phantasm uptime.

Persistence of Memory – Illusions Adept Major Trait

This trait reduces the cooldowns on your phantasm-casting skills by two seconds for each phantasm that gets shattered. I was testing this earlier in EBG with iDefender and iDisenchanter and I was able to pump out iZerkers every 8s while aggressively shattering (w/ Imagined Burden and Illusionists Celerity). I imagine that if one is skilled enough they could shatter after a phantasm volley and then immediately recast instead of waiting the 5-6s for the phantasm to attack again.

Here’s an example of build that I thought up: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJARWlknhK1YhawRNwtGLpG0ZUay0Rv+a2O5AOQAA-TJhFABA8EAAvMwI7PkwlAAA

What do you guys think?

CS + Power Block wombo combo is still very strong IMO. Interrupt Mesmer is probably where it’s at right now. We’ll know more once they push on the next balance patch if non CC burst style builds will be competitive.

Since Imagined Burden (IB) doesn’t rely on crits, a Soldier’s setup geared towards outlasting your opponent would probably be more effective. I made ascended Berserker’s gear because I also wanted to experiment with IB builds in PvE and zerging (link).

PvE Mesmer relies on active defenses such as evades, reflects, and invulns in order to survive. Your phantasms don’t have the ability to save themselves, so in order to protect them you must prevent damage from reaching them in the first place. With the changes to Mantras and Traits, there is a case for a control-oriented Mesmer.

I run daily FotM 50s with a triple Ele, Warrior, and Mesmer party comp. This is the build that I use: http://intothemists.com/guides/5916-gfc_cc_phantasm_spec. The absurd amount of daze and interrupt skills that PvE Mesmer has access to allows for rapid vulnerability stacking and quite literally CC-locks hostile NPCs from glassing your Eles and phantasms.

I use this build for dueling in Obsidian Sanctum:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8flknhy0YNawRNwtGLnGj5ObfDZALUQ5IrEOA-T1hFABA8EAMS53I7PkwFBANdDDq+TVKBBA-w

Recommended food and utility is Fried Golden Dumplings and Bountiful Sharpening Stones. You’re looking at ~14 stacks of might pre-engage off autos alone with everything geared properly. Attaining 25 stacks of might is not terribly hard to do, with ~20 being more commonplace.

I typically start off defensive, trading cooldowns and building up might. You can apply a lot of pressure through your illusions, with S/T being the traditional defensive set. This build doesn’t work as well against stealth classes however, so trait accordingly.

100% boon duration is going to be tough. You might be better off settling for a power-based phantasm build with centaur runes for the swiftness.

Xyonon.3987:

Btw: I used +7% crit chance sigils on every weapon set. Sry I forgot to mention this

So Accuracy sigil > Force? Slaying sigil?

I’m not following. Why are you dividing by 11.75? All of the sustained hps numbers for mantras are assuming 12.75s intervals.

Mirror:
241 hps untraited
295 hps traited
3915 burst healing (1.25s)

Mirror w/ Healing Prism:
241 – 252 hps untraited
295 – 309 hps traited
3915 – 4095 burst healing (1.25s)

Ether Feast:
265 hps w/ 0 illusions
295 hps w/ 1 illusion
326 hps w/ 2 illusions
356 hps w/ 3 illusions
5560 – 7480 burst healing depending on the number of illusions (1s)

Ether Feast w/ Healing Prism:
265 hps w/ 0 illusions
300 hps w/ 1 illusion
336 hps w/ 2 illusions
372 hps w/ 3 illusions
5560 – 7810 burst healing depending on the number of illusions (1s)

Signet of the Ether:
154 hps signet active, untraited
192 hps signet active, traited
113 hps signet passive, 1 illusion
220 hps signet passive, 2 illusions
327 hps signet passive, 3 illusions
5560 burst healing (1s)

Signet of the Ether w/ Healing Prism:
154 – 162 hps signet active, untraited
192 – 201 hps signet active, traited
115 hps signet passive, 1 illusion
226 hps signet passive, 2 illusions
339 hps signet passive, 3 illusions
5560 – 5815 burst healing (1s)

Mantra of Recovery:
411 hps untraited
616 hps harmonious mantras
615 hps restorative mantras
820 hps both traits
5240 burst healing (2s)
7860 burst healing harmonious mantras (3s)
10480 burst healing if recast (6.75s)
15720 burst healing if recast, harmonious mantras (8.75s)
13080 burst healing if recast, restorative mantras (6.75s)
18320 burst healing if recast, both traits (8.75s)

Mantra of Recovery w/ Healing Prism:
411 – 420 hps untraited
616 – 631 hps harmonious mantras
615 – 638 hps restorative mantras
820 – 853 hps both traits
5240 – 5480 burst healing (2s)
7860 – 8220 burst healing harmonious mantras (3s)
10480 – 10960 burst healing if recast (6.75s)
15720 – 16440 burst healing if recast, harmonious mantras (8.75s)
13080 – 13620 burst healing if recast, restorative mantras (6.75s)
18320 – 19100 burst healing if recast, both traits (8.75s)

Restorative Illusions w/ Healing Prism:
872 burst healing w/ 0 illusions
1084 burst healing w/ 1 illusion
1296 burst healing w/ 2 illusions
1508 burst healing w/ 3 illusions

The buff to Mirror Images by making it a Manipulation skill has given it healing potential on par or better than casting Ether Feast with one clone. This is huge for builds that don’t have deceptive evasion, such as the recent PU power burst setup. The extra long reflection duration will be handy against pistol thieves, rangers, and engineers, and even power necros. Don’t bring this heal in a fight against a greatsword Mesmer- Mirror Blade cannot be reflected.

Ether Feast is still a strong burst heal for phantasm builds and traditional Deceptive Evasion shatter builds. You only need active illusions when you decide to heal, so there’s a lot of versatility with different play styles.

While it is a mainstay of most PvE builds, Signet of Ether didn’t really benefit much from the patch. It’s severely lacking in heal potential, having terrible passive stats. Traiting for blurred inscriptions does give you a distortion and an extra clear, but the 1s cast time on the heal means you either have to know what’s coming before hand or have insane reflexes. Still, the extra phantasm can be nice and there could be some nice synergy with Inspiring Distortion.

Mantra of Recovery had some of the strongest gains with the patch. With traits, this skill has better sustained healing than Consume Conditions w/ 10 condis & MoC. Burst healing is absolutely ridiculous with the proper traits and this heal synergizes the best with the Inspiration minors. The 8% (2×4%) damage modifier you currently receive from Harmonious Mantras and Inspiration frees up another utility slot in PvE that would otherwise be used for mantra duty. Mimic anyone?

Let me know what you guys think.

The June 23 patch has had a profound impact on Mesmer. Changes in traits, abilities, and gameplay mechanics have strengthened our ability to deal direct damage. I’m happy to say that some of these changes have also made healing skills that were previously ignored more competitive. If you’re familiar with the changes feel free to skip down to the numbers. If not, let’s take a look!

Mirror: Mirror was a sort of niche heal skill that didn’t see a whole lot of use outside of duels against Rangers and against specific bosses, e.g., Stargazer, Raving Asura. It heals the player for 3915, requires 1.25s to cast, and reflects projectiles during the cast. Post-patch Mirror is now considered a Manipulation skill, and can be traited to have its CD reduced from the default 15s to a strong 12s.

Ether Feast: Arguably the most common heal skill used in PvP and WvW, Ether Feast heals the player for 5560. It has a one second cast time and 20s CD like before, and you gain an additional 640 health per illusion. For those of you putting together a full nomad’s snowfall rune build to troll people at east keep, Ether Feast scales the best with healing power out of every option out there.

Signet of the Ether: This skill was the de facto choice for PvE builds because of how it reset phantasm CDs. You get the same 5560 base healing as Ether Feast but the CD is a much longer 35s. With Blurred Inscriptions, this CD gets reduced down to 28s. The passive healing on this signet scales linearly with the number of illusions you have active, and so it saw some use in phantasm and condition builds in WvW.

Mantra of Recovery: Before the patch, our mantra heal was primarily used either in conjunction with Menders Purity for condition cleanse for roaming/dueling builds, mantra-oriented support builds for WvW zerging, or with Empowering Mantras for the extra burst damage with elementalist conjures and reflects. Post-patch, this heal has been buffed immensely by the revamped Harmonious Mantras, which gives a temporary stackable 4% (8% if you trait into Inspiration) damage buff upon mantra use, and the new mantra skill recharge mechanic that starts the CD after you charge the skill- not when you use it. Base heals for Power Return are 2620 with a 1s CD between applications. Charging the skill takes 2.75s and sits on a 10s CD. You can trait into this heal through Dueling and Inspiration provide three uses of Power Return (Harmonious Mantras) or provide AoE healing (Restorative Mantras).

Note on the Illusions trait line: Menders Purity has been turned into a minor trait and synergizes extremely well with short cool-down heals like MoR and Mirror. There is currently a bug associated with it not proccing off the last application of Power Return but should hopefully be fixed soon. Restorative Illusions is back and has had its bug with Illusionary Persona that provided extra healing fixed. It’s still worth some consideration due to its condition cleanse. Healing Prism is a new minor trait that heals your allies when you yourself heal. It also adds 100 healing power for every illusion you have active.

Whew! Let’s move on to the numbers. All calculations have been done with 0 base healing power. For brevity I’ve used “hps” to represent the amount of healing per second your heal skills if used continuously. “Burst healing” refers to how much raw health you regain when you commit to a heal.

Lately I’ve been trying to integrate Mesmer focus into my guild’s roaming composition by running an Interrupt build with Domination, Dueling, and Chaos. S/F is great for clearing camps due to pulls from curtain and the cleave and projectile destruction of your warden. GS is a good complement, but staff can also work if you swap the traits around for more reflects. I had to decide whether to use Deceptive Evasion or Harmonious Mantras but wound up picking the dodge clones because Interrupt builds are very much about the mind games. Powerblock and Chaotic Interruption are going to be amazing for clearing npcs though, so make sure you hold onto your Domination traits.

In the mean time, try using Centaur runes with your Mantra of Restoration or a transformation tonic. Signet of Inspiration for bonus points!

Regarding PvE,

Xyonon published a table here yesterday that made a strong argument for Eagle runes in conjunction with Assassin’s armor.

I’m not sure if Ranger runes are still working as intended or bugged to allow illusions to count towards the 6th rune bonus. Strength runes don’t seem very attractive unless you run some sort of Illusioned Burden or Bountiful Interruption build, both options being quite the departure from the usual straight-up phantasm builds you see posted here.

Regarding WvW,

If you are a solo-roamer, I would strongly suggest running Traveler runes unless you are using focus off-hand or staff for the about-face phase retreat trick. If you are using a focus, you can easily maintain swiftness by slotting in harder-hitting Pack runes with Signet of Inspiration (swap out before combat of course). The benefit of running Traveler runes is likely to diminish once the Chronomancer elite specialization arrives. There is an old build by Dooid that utilizes centaur runes with transformation tonics to proc the 6th rune bonus, though I don’t think the condition pressure from Sharper Images is anywhere as dangerous now with the June 23 patch changes. If you really want people to hate you, you might be able to get away with Scholar runes in a Power-PU shatter setup, though I’d expect that to get nerfed any day now.

If you participate in small-group roaming, havoc teams, or focus parties/“gank”, I would strongly recommend you to consider Pack runes. Access to boon duration post-patch is much more limited post-patch so topping your team off with extra time for boons that stack in duration, e.g., swiftness and fury, is a smart move.

If you pugmand or drive on your Mesmer, Pack, Melandru, and Lyssa runes are all strong options that offer different benefits. The last patch brought changes that made Mesmer a lot more viable in large scale non-periphery roles. There are things like the stealth buff to Mantra of Concentration, changes to mantra recharge mechanics in general, baseline traits, revamped utilities and elites, resistance, boon-sharing, and party-wide Distortion, just to name a few.

note:

I personally use Pack runes for PvE (mainly fractals) because phantasms don’t benefit from any percent damage modifiers other than Empowered Illusions. I usually engage bosses head-on in melee and my micro isn’t good enough to maintain a very high Scholar’s uptime. This is also the same set I use for WvW so it’s very convenient to not have to switch back and forth, even though I realize that the 4th rune bonus is redundant in group play. With the amount of interrupts and Power Block procs I’ve been getting however, I may pick up a set of Eagle runes in the near future since interrupt damage does benefit from those aforementioned modifiers.

I feel a bit lost, having picked up the game last year. Did scepter inflict confusion instead of torment in the beginning?

Can confirm. Just tested it in sPvP. When using MoR w/o harmonious mantras, the 2nd heal doesn’t proc the condition cleanse. When using MoR w/ harmonious mantras, the 3rd heal doesn’t proc the condition cleanse.

Zenith.7301:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Inspirations provides much more than that:

AoE condi cleanse on heal
AoE invulnerability in emergencies (and sometimes on signet use)
Rampant reflects (which many times are needed, and are useful as they do damage, whereas warden would normally take projectile damage away)
More Durable Phantasms
And then the choice of boon duplication or enhanced glamors. Synergizes with domination to make yet another AoE invulnerability.

Essentially, inspirations provides you all those sorts of little bits and bobs that help deal with whatever random crap that fractals will throw at you.

But I do agree that duelist is almost a must-have trait line. Perma vigor, nigh perma fury on yourself, perma fury on phantasms, up to 150 ferocity fairly reliably, and more potent mantras with a temp damage boost. While most other lines have a trait or two you can use, dueling is chock full of them, whether you are running a power or condi build.

You don’t need the aoe condi clear. That’s why you got staff eles with healing rain. Or Null field/Mantra instead.

AoE invulnerability is just a perk. We haven’t had it in fractal 50’s and yet they are still easily cleared.

The rampant reflects are extraneous. You got Feedback, that’s really all you need in most circumstances.

I don’t think people realize how quickly the eles/thieves/warriors in your group are killing mobs/bosses that an iwarden reflect is really just a luxury.

Maybe in HoT we’ll have actually intense content that may demand these support items, but in the meantime the OP does not get room to complain.

You got your damage options in dom/dueling/illusions. No, you do not need inspiration even for fractal 50.

If a staff ele switches out of fire to clear conditions, your group DPS will tank and might rotations will go out the window. Even pre-patch, the role of condition cleanse has long been the responsibility of the Guard/Mesmer. With AoE “Mender’s Purity” being included automatically with Inspiration, it makes a lot of sense to use mantra of restoration, especially when you consider the 2×4% damage modifier from mantra use. With Healing Prism, there is synergy with MoR to keep your party member’s Scholar bonuses active. And if that wasn’t enough to convince you, you can always swap off-hand weapons before you get in combat to get that third phantasm!

I agree. Since IP is baseline, we can also provide AoE distortion to our party now via F4 in case of emergency.

IMO when reflects are needed in fractals, they’re usually needed in great quantities. Examples include all portions of the Grawl fractal, the first half of the Dredge fractal, and especially Uncategorized. Simply destroying those projectiles with untrained warden feels like a DPS loss.

PvE difficulty needs to be ramped up. My WvW havoc team has been completing level 50s in ~25-30m post-patch. Fights against trash mobs don’t last long enough for me to benefit from compounding power (which doesn’t affect illusion damage), illusionists celerity, or phantasmal haste. With the exception of Snowblind & dualists, bosses that last longer than 15-20s will usually cleave down my phantasms anyways.

In my opinion, you don’t need Illusions even for fractal 50! :P

Anyways, here’s my build that I’m using for 50s: http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgMBvAJ0BJw~
Warrior, Ele, Ele, Ele, Mesmer
Mantra of resolve, null field/stab mantra/portal, Mantra of distraction, feedback, timewarp

Halting Strike damage is insane against trash mobs, and baseline IP makes defiance stripping a joke. Hard CCs in general from F3, MoD, riposte, and curtain synergizes well with ele Tempest Defense. Considered using Illusionary Inspiration but the long CD and timing of the boon share is trumped by the glamour duration and resistance from Temporal Enchanter.

Is the recommendation of assassins stat gear a holdover from pre-patch builds?

Quick update.

Shinyruku_ku tested Imagined Burden on his stream just now with Berserkers amulet, Strength runes, and Air/Fire sigils. He was able to hit 25 stacks of might on a test dummy, albeit using Mirror Blade and Mindwrack.

Hey guys, one of the new grandmaster traits being introduced next Tuesday is Imagined Burden, named after the Illusionary Berserker attack skill, under the Domination trait line. Here’s what it reads:

Imagined Burden: Reduces recharge of greatsword skills by 20%. Gain 2 stacks of might for 5 seconds whenever you or an illusion uses special surge. All of your other greatsword skills inflict cripple for 2s when they hit.

This trait could have fantastic might generation potential in PvE & WvW, and immense group utility when synergized with the Illusionary Inspiration grandmaster trait in the Inspiration trait line. I did some napkin math in sPvP earlier with the target dummies and found that:

• My character was able to perform 7 spatial surge attack chains in 10s, which should translate to a sustained 7 stacks every 5s.
• Each clone was able to perform 19 spatial surges over the course of a minute, which should translate to a sustained 9.5 stacks every 5s when you have 3 greatsword clones.
• Fried Golden Dumplings have a 33% chance to proc might for 5s with no ICD when you critically hit. If we assume the Mesmer has 80% crit including Fury, that’s roughly 2.8 stacks every 5s.
• Superior Sigils of Strength have a 60% chance to proc might for 10s on crit with a 1s ICD. With a 78% crit rate in sPvP using high-crit gear, I was able to produce a sustained 6-8 stacks of might off AAs alone. This is in line with the numbers on paper, which says we should expect a sustained 6.72 stacks over kitten period. There is a slight discrepancy with the sigil ICD nullifying the next might proc but from my testing this seems to have a larger impact on variance rather than the averages.

When you sum these numbers up, a post-patch greatsword Mesmer could self-stack a sustained 26 stacks (if it wasn’t capped at 25) after the ramp-up phase before you factor in boon duration. This doesn’t even take into account the might and vuln stacking of Mirror Blade, which will benefit from baseline Illusionary Elasticity. When you add the boon duration multipliers, you get the following estimates:

• +65% boon duration (strength runes, dumplings, 80% crit inc Fury) —> ~43 stacks
• +75% boon duration (strength runes, dumplings, bountiful stones, 80% crit inc Fury) —> ~45.5 stacks
• +65% boon duration (strength runes, dumplings, 100% crit inc Fury) —> ~46-48 stacks
• +75% boon duration (strength runes, dumplings, bountiful stones, 100% crit inc Fury) —> ~49-51 stacks

To achieve these numbers you would have to camp greatsword and maintain three clones. This is a huge departure from the phantasm and sword mainhand oriented builds that are currently popular. If you want to share this might with the rest of the party, you’ll need to trait into Inspiration and grab the new grandmaster trait Illusionary Inspiration. Here’s what it does:

llusionary Inspiration: Phantasms grant 3 seconds regeneration to allies near them every 3 seconds. If you have any boons when you summon a phantasm you cast Signet of Inspiration. This trait benefits from the recharge bonus provided by Blurred Inscriptions.

Unfortunately, the last bit about the recharge bonus hints that there will be a 24s ICD on the signet active if you have Blurred Inscriptions, so I don’t expect people to abandon the damage and reflect capability of their phantasm builds anytime soon. The might stacks gained from Illusionary Burden simply don’t last long enough to make it through to each phantasm cast. Had there been no ICD on this trait, IB mesmer could have had the might stacking utility of PS warrior and reflection capability of guardian rolled into one build. I did consider using Mimic and slotting in the actual signet for 40s of boon sharing at 8s intervals, but at that point you’re better off just using other classes.

That aside, I can’t wait to work with these traits as well as all the other Mesmer changes come Tuesday. Even now, I’m imagining how effective an IB sinister build would be for boss solos, benefiting from all the on-crit minor traits in Dueling. A backline IB phantasm build will be a game changer for small group roaming where mid-fight regroups and boon uptime is essential.

Questions and comments appreciated.

Hi everyone.

Since the reworked traits are going to be implemented next Tuesday, I wanted to share a build that I’ve been using in small group roaming to great success over the past few months. It takes the strengths of traditional 44006 IP shatter and refines it around the role of Mesmer in small group play, namely burst damage and control. Incidentally, it’s also very strong against D/D and D/P thieves in 1v1s, but that’s not the focus here.

Here’s a link to the build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8flknpMt1oxRNcrNiphYqeo+d95k+RjAA-TFCEABJq+zWKBZS5nBPAgc2foNdDAcEAe4iAQIABbBA-w

How do I play this build?

General positioning should be conservative, staying closer to the rear or periphery when you aren’t bursting. Traited blink CD allows you to go in for occasional spikes through a MoD + GS2 + F1 combo. Working off of dazed/stunned targets is important if you want to benefit from Wastrel’s punishment.

Where is Deceptive Evasion?

Deceptive Evasion (Dueling X) can be very helpful to set up shatters and intimidate opponents, but in my experience dodge clones simply get cleaved down . Retaining Illusionary Persona gives me that instant access to Diversion and Distortion if a thief pressures me and forces me to be more disciplined with my dodges.

Where is the condition cleanse?

Adding more classes into the mix allows for each player to min/max their builds for better overall group synergy. Classes better suited for boon generation (D/D ele) or heals & clears (support guard) can shine in their roles while I focus more on damage.

Additional comments

With full ascended, stacks, and consumables, your idle power should sit at around 3050 before might, and around 3500 in combat. We avoid the Dueling trait line because we get a wonderful extra 20% crit rate from Fury (pack runes, zephyr’s boon, for great justice, etc.).

Thanks for reading. I’m happy to answer any questions or comments.

I’ve heard similar complaints about the emptiness of “full” servers towards other servers, most recently Dragonbrand. Addressing this issue might require an even larger overhaul of the home server system than the megaserver update last year. We can only hope that developers behind the scenes are working hard to dissociate server statuses with players that are inactive with WvW. If this really is a deal-breaker for you and your friends, have you considered transferring to lower tier servers in T3-T5?

Adding on to azizul’s comment, it might also be helpful to other posters if the OP told us what type of WvW gameplay he/she prefers. Do you enjoy running with zergs? Solo-roaming? Running around with a small group?

FrownyClown.8402:

Dawdler.8521:

T3 want to fight, get new guilds, get new bandwagoners, start winning i WvW.
T3 rise to T2, everyone go “omg they want to win?!” and get even more bandwagoners.
T3 become T1 and the circle of life begins again.

I just want to get some good fights without getting a big AJ by dragonaids or get sieged to death by sbi

You should give roaming or small group engagements a shot. Running with a zerg or 20-mans can get old fairly quickly.

Arius.7031:

t3 is terrible. Having fought Mag, DB, and SBI recently, each server only has a few gems and a sea of rubbish. PYRO is okay, VR is okay, every other guild on Mag is average to trash. Weak pugs. Solid roamers. SBI has great zerg pugs, terrible otherwise, no serious guilds. DB is just all around pretty terrible in just about every conceivable way.

Tier 3 is not the fights tier at this moment. I’d say of all tiers I’ve been in, it’s among the worst for fights.

Mag, you cannot makes a fights tier when you have so few fights guilds. You can’t do it. You’ll need to get way more fights guilds before we’re anywhere near making t3 a fights tier. Until then, it’s one of the most abominable PPT tiers around, with Mag’s scrub ppters (sfd/fail) fighting db’s ppters (everyone in SEA) with some poor 3rd server caught in the middle of the ajs.

I agree with pretty much everything you said.

(Full disclosure, I currently play on Dragonbrand)

I highly recommend checking out T3/T4 servers like DB/DH/Mag/NSP/SBI. The whole “4 T2 servers” situation of the past two months has all but resolved itself. There’s a lot of fat to be trimmed from bandwagon servers like Dragonbrand and especially Maguuma, so I think your guild might have a great time playing on SBI.

@coglin.1867

I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of players that make up a “PvD K-train” blob do so not because of the PPT but because of the WXP, loot, and karma. Changing how points are rewarded based off whether a server is outnumbered or not doesn’t change the underlying reason of why these incidents occur. I fear that with your proposed changes, you’ll still see a lot of off-hours “PvD K-train” blobs, except now it will take twice as long to lose enough Glicko to drop down the ladder.