Almost all phantasm can be best dps if you use them in the correct situation. For example, iWarden ranks 5th on my DPS list yet there are many cases where it will hit harder than any phantasm out there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvtsmUM5DIo
After doing this research on phantasms I came to a conclusion, which I probably knew already but didn’t really pay much attention to, that it’s pointless theorycrafting or ranking phantasm DPS. It’s almost like comparing apples to oranges if you try to.
Old data on wiki listed the time between the end of phantasms attack animation and start of the next one. That doesn’t reflect the actual attack rate, just the time phantasm spends idling between their attack chains. What I was researching the the rate at which phantasms attack. Also, I believe the old data may not be entirely accurate as seen with the iZerker. I can only assume that the original tester ran into the same problem I did earlier, where some phantasms attack at same intervals and some vary up to +/- 0.5s on every attack. If you use only one sample data and not average of of 10 – 20 samples then your observed time has a chance of being up to 1s off.
Anyways, both Wiki and OP are now updated with data on all phantasms. Everything recorded should be accurate up to 16ms (60 fps).
Nah, I skipped Lupi. All other bosses I did fight though. Belka – 1200 range, Abomination – melee no tricks, Alphard – 1200 range strafing, Bria – melee no tricks. I’m still learning Lupi, especially dodging the kicks by paying attention to the animations (the only thing I’m still struggling with ). I’m sure with a bit more practice I’ll get the tells into muscle memory and melee him properly.
Ok, after few more hours in HotM I figured out the timings for most phantasms. Tomorrow I will finish it up and add the timings for the disenchanter/defender and underwater phantasms. For now, wiki contains swordsman/zerker/duelist/warlock/warden/mage timings. OP is updated as well.
As far as Phantasmal Haste,
Swordsman – 0% faster
Berserker – 0% faster
Duelist – 15% faster
Warlock – 19% faster
Warden – 12% faster
Mage – 18% faster
Also, something interesting I’ve noticed. In LA during prime time some phantasms will attack +/- 0.5 seconds from the average yet some will attack at the same interval no matter what. In HotM, the timings are much more stable. During peak times they varied at most +/- 0.1 sec. During night time, the intervals were within 0.01 sec of each other (!). From this I can only assume that some of our phantasms can “lag” if the current server load is too high.
Ok, after some initial tests… iZerker also doesn’t benefit from Phantasmal Haste
I’ll redo the test from scratch to be 100% sure, because if this is true… gg anet
Hope you guy don’t misunderstand me. The numbers in op are BASE damage dealt by phantasms on average. Almost every phantasm can be better than the other in one situation or another. The whole purpose of this study was to give me a good idea as to how hard phantasms hit at minimum then use this knowledge and adapt to the encounter/situation to take advantage of other sources of DPS even better. This is how mesmers are, we are NOT warriors where all our damage comes from direct hits.
The one issue I have with your numbers, frifox, is that you got different numbers for swordsman traited and untraited. I’m fairly certain that there is 0 change for traiting the swordsman, you may want to check your videos again.
You are correct. I recorded 10x attacks and untraited Swordsman attacks between 4.200 to 5.033 sec and traited attacks between 4.050 to 4.917 sec, which leads me to believe that timings I observed could be within range of possible attack time but not represent the actual average attack rate.
I will redo the timings and update OP/Wiki later today with the range or average times between attacks once I’m sure they’re accurate.
In my tests, berserker always connected 3 out of 4 possible hits in an open field on a non-moving golem. If a golem was moving in the same direction as the berserker’s spin then all 4 hits connected. Also, those possible 12 stacks of bleed on everyone around the Warden and that possible 120% more DPS on the Warlock from conditions… mmmm
Spent few hours recording each phantasm and then using video editing software to record the time between attacks with Phantasmal Haste and without. Then, in HotM (no armor, no trinkets, no sigils, no power traits) against a dummy golem (open field, not against a wall) I recorded 20 non-crits from each phantasms and took an average for each. Finally, I divided the average damage over the time between attacks. Here are attack rates:
Attack rate (untraited):
Swordsman – 4.5 sec
Berserker – 7.1 sec
Duelist – 7.5 sec
Warlock – 6.8 sec
Warden – 13.7 sec
Mariner – 10.3 sec
Mage – 7.7 sec
Whaler – 9.7 sec
Disenchanter – 4.4 sec
Defender – 4.6 sec
Attack rate (traited):
Swordsman – 4.5 sec
Berserker – 7.1 sec
Duelist – 6.5 sec
Warlock – 5.7 sec
Warden – 12.2 sec
Mariner – 10.3 sec
Mage – 6.5 sec
Whaler – 8.3 sec
Disenchanter – 3.8 sec
Defender – 4.0 sec
Attack rate (difference):
Swordsman – 0% faster
Berserker – 0% faster
Duelist – 15% faster
Warlock – 19% faster
Warden – 12% faster
Mariner – 0% faster
Mage – 18% faster
Whaler – 17% faster
Disenchanter – 16% faster
Defender – 15% faster
Without Phantasmal Haste:
Swordsman – 144
Berserker – 115
Duelist – 98
Warlock – 81
Warden – 81
Mariner 67
Mage – 30
Whaler – 28
Disenchanter – 21
Defender – 18
With Phantasmal Haste:
Swordsman – 144
Berserker – 115
Duelist – 113
Warlock – 97
Warden – 90
Mariner – 67
Mage – 35
Whaler – 33
Disenchanter – 25
Defender – 21
Of course, the damage dealt from possible bleeds on crit (5s base duration), confusion stacks (mage), and conditions on enemy (warlock) was not accounted in the test.
I added a second table on wiki for Phantasmal Haste beside the current one where I listed the times between attacks. The time is the amount of time between 1st damage hit of the phantasm. In case of swordsman, the time between every hit. In case of duelist or any multi-hit phantasm, the time between the very 1st hit for each unload.
Nobody in my guild / friends list even attempts such runs so I don’t know anyone who can teach/show me around. Everything I do in Arah is self taught. It would save me countless hours if someone actually showed me the melee ways to do solo the boss, but of course I doubt there’s someone who’s willing to share such “tricks” to someone who is still a newbie in Arah.
Ok, did few experiments today. The champ wolf has 3 attacks:
1. Bite (low damage)
2. Leap (high damage, does 2 at once)
3. Frost Leap (high damage, does 2 at once)
There is not difference in damage dealt between Leap and Frost Leap. The only visual difference I could see is during Frost Leap he creates a frost texture on the floor during the leap. The time between Leap & Frost Leap ranged from 4s to 14s, with 90% being 4.0 – 4.5 seconds. There is not set rotation of the attacks. Sometimes he’ll do Leap first, sometimes Frost Leap. Also, there is no set amount of Bites he’ll do before next Leap/Frost Leap.
The only constant I found is during the start of the fight, he will always open with Leap or Frost Leap. You can immobilize him at start and get him to waste the attack. He will follow with random amount of Bites even if the initial Leap / Frost Leap doesn’t connect.
Next I’ll explore the cooldown of each attack to hopefully differentiate them.
Champion Icebrood Wolf is the only thing in CoE I still haven’t figured out. What are the tells I should be looking for to avoid his massive damage spike? Can’t always rely on my party to help mitigate the damage, and being mesmer with about 1000 ways to evade and interrupt I want to be able to live through that encounter without relying on that protection/aegis from the party.
The reason I bring this up is I’m seeing many PUG’s actually attempting to kill him for that measly loot and if I ask to skip, they either badmouth or kick. I guess it’s finally time to figure him out for good
In my goal to solo arah p2 and being a warrior with no reflect skills I found a neat trick that allowed me to do Alphard, the last boss I couldn’t solo till now, without someone helping me.
Pull her out to the east and range from 1200 while strafing left/right quick (hold Left and keep hitting Right very fast). If the clones/adds spawn just move back a bit and they will de-spawn. If you pull her far enough to the east (as seen in video) she will not teleport back to the middle making the fight go faster. I didn’t record the whole fight since you guys would get sick of the constant left/right strafing, lol.
Sorry if this is known already. Just sharing what I found
All. I’m not even kidding. I carry and equip whatever weapon will be beneficial the most. Generally though, I end up using sword/pistol sword/focus with 0/20/0/25/25. Using battle sigil on sword and perception on offhand.
Tell that to a d/d ele, lol… Also, many times I had him switch aggro to me right as soon as I swap to a gs, in a party with 4 melee warriors, while being in melee myself as well. Swapping back to sword lost that aggro. Something tells me your luck with keeping disenchanters alive might very well depend on your party composition, what weapons they’re using, and how far away you’re from the golem as it seems that all of the above affect the aggro in some way or another.
5, since i’m stripping boons as well (3 clones and me, since I attack ~2x as fast). I’ve also noticed that he loves to target my 2nd disenchanger immediately if I summon him so it’s not easy to keep them up if he destroys them so fast. Though, last run I’ve noticed something interesting. If I summon a disenchanter during his spin (long skill animation) I can summon all 3 and he will ignore them (similar trick where you glitch some of Arah bosses)
On my mesmer for the advanced golem I use different strategy. I also run 0/20/0/25/25 so for that fight I swap in X in 2nd line and equip Decoy and Mirror Images. During the fight I keep 3 sword clones up at all times. If one of more gets killed I have no problem immediately summoning more to replace them. Every 3rd sword auto-attack both me and my clones rip one of his boons.This results in the whole fight golem having more or less zero boons, which makes the fight easier/faster.
Also, if many in the party run Scholar runes, I might slot in mantra of pain + appropriate healing trait to keep whole party at 90%+ health at all time.
After leveling a ranger, an engineer and a guardian. I finally decide to try it with the mesmer
This gave me an impression that you leveled ranger/engine/guard and you decided to try the same with mesmer, aka leveling him to 80. Either I misunderstood you or your wording was very misleading.
.
@frifox: i can translate your post to “your idea is kitten try this instead”. isn’t really helpful.
though the sw/sw and sw/p idea could be worth thinking about. but i don’t like the pistol and sword off hand either.
Yep, pretty much. Since you mentioned that you just recently got to 80 I figured it would be to your benefit to first play around with a build that has all traits benefiting direct shatter damage with weapons that will also provide you one of the most DPS on their own, all with traits that lower skill CD to the absolute minimum -12 sec phantasms and more ways to generate clones than you could shatter.
I wish enemies couldn’t see how many charges I have. Zero stability charges is like a big sign over my head saying “cc and nuke me at will”. Or when I do have condi clears charged it’s “don’t blow your condi burst just yet”. But then again, I could could also use that to my advantage
On Golem, phantasms ignore the static field. All other damage they outheal with their own regeneration boon. I usually set up 3 iDuelists and go afk somewhere on the side.
According to wiki the “Phantasms can be affected by boons”. I did some testing and it seems that phantasms are not affected by the might stacks that you drop on them directly. However, if the owner has any might stacks then phantasms will inherit that boost in their owner’s power.
Apologies if this was already generally known. I just found this out for myself while min/maxing my phantasm build. Also, I didn’t test if Fury/Protection work the same way. Would be glad if someone can chip in if they know the answer.
Yep, did some testing in HotM and even with 100% crit chance (75% + Phantasmal Fury + 5% from Accuracy) iDuelist at times stacks 7 bleeds, not 8, which means the accuracy sigil didn’t apply. Time to rethink the sigils I use for my dungeon armor, again
I think all sigils/runes that affects your stats (actually changes your power/prec/etc numbers) will apply to phantasms. This does include the Accuracy sigil. I did a few tests and Force/Night sigils, Solar rune damage multipliers don’t carry over to phantasms. In fact, the only damage multipliers that carry over are the Empowered Illusions and Phantasmal Strength traits.
If you ever fought in T1 WvW on reset night you know that when you have three ~60 man zergs clash (~180 people) you end up with a MASSIVE skill lag. Can’t even fire off the healing skill for 20 seconds. ANet servers simply can’t handle that many people in one area at the moment.
You happen to be lucky that your server is PAYING for a TS server.
If you’re not willing to put the effort and get some form of VoIP communication for the event, you have no right to complain. I spent hours getting into main server, spent hours attempting killing Tequatl. Result? We killed him before anyone else. Effort pays off.
The cripples and fps lag make the timing harder to pull off. I was surprised at that myself that I was missing 90%+ of the waves, where on an overflow with very few people there I could jump every single one of them with no problems.
I’m pretty sure it’s due to my armor, which is a human t3 skin with the exotic berserker stats transmuted from the CoE dungeon armor. That CoE armor originally had the Superior Runes of Golemancer in them. Apparently the transmutation deleted the runes but kept some of their original functionality, specifically the 6th one – 5% Chance to summon a golem (Cooldown: 90s).
Has anyone actually experimented and figured out what and how exactly these golems get summoned?
As long as mantras have that ridiculous ~3s cast time. They will not be viable in any pvp setting (sPvP/tPvP/WvW). All mantra casts are basically a hey come hit me now sign. FREE KILL COME GET YOUR FREE KILLS GET EM WHILE THEY ARE HOT! <Is what I feel like the mantra symbol is when we cast it. Just saying.
Yep, proc some Retaliation on yourself and start charging mantra. Works wonders
Builds with passive effects. You can interrupt a heal, but not a heal overtime. Same problem with some AoE conditions.
[Reaper of Grenth] (human elite)
- AoE poison/chill, unblockable, reapplied every 3 sec
- 15 sec duration
I’ve been using this elite in wvw quite frequently as of late. Works very well against melee happy enemies with heals over time. Also, aura animation is beautiful D
Fort Marriner in Lion’s Arch has a small enclosed area with 12 x Practice Dummies and 8 x Practice Targets. Please change a few of those dummies/targets and allow us to crit and stack conditions on them.
Something I enjoy doing when I see a mesmer in a dungeon party is ask them “What’s the best mesmer build?”. If they give me some build then they loose all credibility in my eyes. We aren’t a one trick pony, we specialize. Good mesmers will always adapt and adjust their traits, gear, and playstyle to execute whatever they’re doing with maximum efficiency. That being said, don’t forget that some “bad” mesmers are in fact good mesmers just being lazy. Don’t be too quick to judge
Has anyone played around with storing siege projectiles in wvw, such as mortar/cannon/golem? If it works, with Echo’s 1500 range it might be quite… interesting
