Guild Wars 2

My idea as always is: reset your heal skill cd when interrupt. 30s icd.

At this stage, I would prefer a complete rework of Power Block.

While the concept is nice, thief mechanic is simply way too established and any tweak to Power Block while keeping the same concept would still make thief have either an unfair advantage or disadvantage to any other classes.

Not sure if anyone would like it but I’m just throwing out my own idea of Power Block anyway.

Power Block: Blocking now has 33% chance to daze the attacker for 2s. No internal CD, works with Aegis boon.

Imagine the synergy with Halting Strike in this Domination traitline.

What mantras the mesmer was using?

WhiteRose.6934:

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

I do wonder if mesmer can achieve the same thing by having 3 clone death traits with DE (probably with energy sigil due to clone demands), mantra of distraction (plus harmonious mantra?) with perplexity, and condi duration food etc. But that would probably be pushing it since opponents need to be actively destroying clones.

So playing PU?

Standard PUC builds dont trait 6 pts into Dueling, and also why would u take PU instead of CI if u intend to run Mantra of Distraction and Perplexity Runes.

@Advent, MailMail: good to see that others support the idea of buffing glamours.

I love this thread, really makes me want to run nothing but PU spec in PvP, in fact i will trait Desperate Decoy, run Torch, Decoy, Veil, Mass Invi and Rune of Infiltration.
—- evil laugh —-

Many might agree with me on this, but I think Imbued Diversion should be baseline for Diversion (maybe reduce the radius to 180 instead of 240, like the Daze Mantra).

I think when Diversion shatter was designed originally, its use was intended as to defend against or disrupt a single target enemy. But more than 2 years into the game, the meta has changed dramatically and Diversion is now being used for both defense and offense in many creative ways. The buff to Diversion would give the mesmer the unique role for aoe control, especially for people who enjoys lock-down playstyle. Also as Anet is trying to give mesmer some more aoe dmg option like recent buff to mantras, this would be another nice thing to add (Diversion + Halting Strike 2 trait pts vs Imbued Diversion + Halting Strike 8 trait pts)

Then the gm trait can be changed to : increase the radius to 240 and reduce 20% recharge time for Diversion.

Arcane Thievery can be a big help against boonspam eles. Just my 2cents.

This is what i think the problem u guys having: the new iLeap works like a ranged attack that bypasses terrains (which makes it a huge buff compared to the old one). However, the Swap skill is a teleport skill which means you can’t Swap to where you normally can’t Blink to even though the iLeap connects and the clone is created at target.

If Swap is not bound by the normal teleport rules like Blink does, you could teleport up enemy towers and keeps in WvW and that would be game-breaking.

So in short, Swap is just as buggy as Blink is (same goes with other teleport skills in the game as they all share the same pathing rules but I dont know exactly how they work).

Crossplay.2067:

I agree that Time Warp should be a glamor and it should chill enemies inside of it. That would make up for the 50% quickness nerf that it was never compensated for. Mass Invisibility, on the other hand, needs a lot of work as Thief’s Shadow Refuge does the same thing but better. What’s worse, not only is it a normal utility skill but it has a shorter cooldown.

We should have a grandmaster trait that buffs our glamour skills while we at it.
Look at mantras, they have been getting better and better with 2 gm traits dedicated to them. Meanwhile glamour skills see less and less play and are strictly utilities.

Maybe grandmaster trait: glamour skills inflict 2s of chill at target location. Get rid of that abomination Disrupter’s Sustainment for something like this would be nice.

I absolutely love Lindsey Stirling and her music.

Shatter Me seems like it was made specifically for shatter mesmers, the theme and the catchy tunes are just so mesmer-ish.

Beyond the Veil is another good one (for PU mesmers maybe???).

So I have been playing this spec in WvW for weeks and loving it.
However, I have trouble going against high regen warrior who simply outheals all my condi dmg as well as having so much mobility.

Right now im thinking of switching from tormenting runes to grenth runes for the extra chill since Temporal Curtain doesn’t give a reliable cripple to slow down those GS warriors.
Also I’m using doom sigils on both weapon sets as well.

Anyone have any good tip to deal with warriors in general?

Magusaero.5740:

I didn’t realize that Arcane Power didn’t trigger additional vulnerability—that seems odd. It does trigger on each hit for the Elemental Surge trait (Based on your current attunement, arcane skills cause a condition to foes that they hit). I wonder if it’s a bug.

Fixed in this latest patch (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-October-21-2014)

Elementalist
Arcane Power: Fixed a bug that caused attacks enhanced by this skill to only inflict one stack of vulnerability with Shard of Ice.

While I can’t say if this change will make MtD viable or not but its definitely a step in the right direction. If u get hit by a shatter, you should feel a BIG impact regardless of power or condition build.

Thanks for your feedback guys, really appreciate the ideas you all have stated.

@ Chameleon, Justicar: I’ve been playing on Eredon Terrace since i started the game almost 2 years ago, so like u guys I would love to be rewarded retroactively. However, while it seems fair and all, it might not be the best thing for Anet to do because 2 reasons:

- it might be technically challenging, high risk of introducing new glitches, bugs, etc.,
and simply require much more time and effort to do.

- the 2nd reason, which is even more important, is that: lets say when the patch comes thru, suddenly some people find themselves getting like 500 reward chests, while others get none or just a few. Imagine the QQ. This can potentially create a rift between two types of players in the WvW community as a whole, the backlash from the playerbase might be quite severe, and from Anet’s perspective, it is something to avoid. I do, however, think your idea of a head start for loyalists like us would be nice and justifiable.

Regarding to the abuse of karma farming, now as long as the time it takes to get to rank 500 is reasonably long, it wont be an issue as there are much more effective ways to farm karma than this (open-world PvE, EotM, etc.).

@ GrackFields: i like your ideas of buffing Outnumbered. Not many people realize a huge advantage in terms of supply flow a big zerg has over smaller roaming groups.

@ skyhawk: I just want to clarify that server-exclusive rewards are of same quality, the only difference is just aesthetic, specifically, the different logo for each server.

Again, thanks for your feedback and support of my ideas.

Hi guys, I made a separate thread to share my ideas regarding fixing WvW population imbalance in this thread.
Please check it out and share your thoughts.

Basically its about a Loyalty Ranking System to promote players to stick with their servers through both ups and downs as well as buffing up Outnumbered greatly so that people would move to low-tier servers and establish there for either greater personal rewards or trying out different fighting tactics other than zerging.

Examples of WvW abilities that only useable in Outnumbered situation that I can think of on top of my head:

- You steal supply when stomping an enemy (you cannot steal more supply than you can carry)
- Traps take 50% less supply to build.
- Traps that inflict long-lasting movement impairment conditions (cripple, chilled, immobilize) to many targets (10-20 targets). The idea to disrupt zerg movement/advancement or even pin them down.
- Summon extra NPCs to defend/assault objectives
- Faster deployment of siege in open field (+100% build speed for example)

Whatever ideas to implement and buff Outnumbered, however, in my opinion, it is equally important that Anet conveys the message super clear and in the most friendly (or least upsetting) to the playerbase. How to do that?

Introduce themed WvW Tournament. WvW Tournament with a particular theme and focus on specific aspects of WvW, in this case, of course, Outnumbered fighting.

Lets just say, soon after the Feature Pack adding the Loyalty Ranking System, Anet would announce the incoming WvW Tournament with a fancy name like Against All Odds, for example, adding a bunch of new WvW Abilities that players can only use when they have Outnumbered buff. Also, during the tournament, players get extra personal rewards whenever they get Outnumbered.

Now eventually, as the players spread out to low pop/low coverage servers and try to WvW at odd times to get the Outnumbered buff, the population imbalance will be resolved and Outnumbered could become a very rare occasion. Well, that means problem solved right? What about all the stuff that relates to Outnumbered? Yes, they will become obsolete and underused, but then Anet can then shift the focus of the tournament to something else, a different theme, like new stuff related to defending objectives or large battles (GvG), there are lots of ideas to explore when we get there, if we get there. But first, this population imbalance is top priority.

So that concludes my lengthy post. What are your thoughts? Please provide your feedback and own ideas to help us and Anet to improve WvW as it is such an amazing game mode of Guild Wars 2.

Thank you.

STEP 3: Greatly improve OUTNUMBERED MECHANIC and ITS ASSOCIATED BONUSES/ADVANTAGES to players to even the odds in Outnumbered fighting situations
With the system in place in Steps 1 & 2, now Anet can now tackle the population imbalance directly.

Many others have suggested it and we all have our own ideas how to buff the Outnumbered bonuses. Here I will list some ideas of my own but I welcome any other awesome ideas regarding to this aspect.

But first let’s talk about how and why should we buff up the Outnumbered mechanic and its associated bonuses?

There are 2 aspects to consider:

1) Outnumbered buff grants bonuses for personal gain (more magic find, more WvW gain, etc.).But it is commonly agreed that the current bonuses are simply too little to give any real incentive for players to put up with Outnumbered fight scenarios.

2) Outnumbered buff grants players of the underpopulated server certain advantages to give them a fighting chance against overwhelming enemies. This is non-existent at the moment.

The first aspect should be buffed up considerably more if people are to be convinced to take the risk and get higher rewards. This is a case low risk/high reward vs high risk/much higher reward specifically aimed at players who play to optimize their personal rewards (It’s one way to play the game and they shouldn’t be judged, however, they should be given options to experiment and go out of their usual way to enjoy the game).

In Step 1 I already suggested with the Loyalty Ranking system, players will rank up much faster when being Outnumbered. However, I believe this will not be enough to win people over. Another example to reward players more that ties to the Loyalty Ranking system is: you get Outnumbered buff, you will receive a Loyalty Reward Chest. A player can only receive 1 chest per day per map.

The 2nd aspect is about giving the players the tools to effectively deal with enemies of much greater number, or at least delay them long enough for reinforcements to arrive and help. We’re talking about guerrilla tactics, supply stealing from stomped enemies, more mobility/building speed in small groups vs zerg, more prevalent use and more variety of traps. This addition of tools will open up lots of new way to WvW. Guilds and skilled roamers alike who are curious to try out new tactics to fight against zerg (without bringing a zerg of their own) will be interested to transfer to low-pop/low-coverage servers to test their mettle.

STEP 2: Introduce SERVER LOGOS and SERVER-EXCLUSIVE REWARDS that show the unique logo of each server.
There are many creative ways to go about this step, so I will just list some examples on top of my head and leave you guys to your imagination.

Firstly, Anet can host a logo design contest, at the end of the contest, the best logo for each server will be chosen to implement into the game and of course the designer wins a prize.

Or Anet can leave it to the server communities to run their own logo design contests themselves, and implement the logos once the winner is chosen based on player feedback.

The latter option would save Anet resources and manpower to run the event and give the server communities a great opportunity to come together.

Once the logos are all added to the game, server-exclusive skins that make use of these logos are then added. These items are similar to guild-exclusive items (like Guild Finisher, Guild Shield, Guild Chest Armor, Flying Carpet, etc.). The idea is for loyal players to show off their WvW dedication to their server and bragging rights ofc.

Now, the key thing here is that these server-exclusive skins can only be found in Loyalty Reward Chests and nowhere else, to make them truly ‘valuable’ of WvW-ers. The way you obtain them can be either 1) directly from the chest with rare chance or 2) trade Loyalty Tokens with NPC (similar to the current Badge of Honor and WvW Ticket systems).

In addition to this, a series of Titles related to your Loyalty Rank on your server can also be introduced, again, for showing off and bragging rights, for example:

- Loyalty Rank 100: unlock Title ‘Follower of <server name>’

- Loyalty Rank 200: unlock Title ‘Watcher of <server name>’

- Loyalty Rank 300: unlock Title ‘Defender of <server name>’

- Loyalty Rank 400: unlock Title ‘Protector of <server name>’

- Loyalty Rank 500: unlock Title ‘Guardian of <server name>’

STEP 1: Implement the LOYALTY RANKING SYSTEM to reward WvW veterans on a particular server.
So how does it work?

Lets just say the system is implemented on a feature patch. Once the patch comes through, you go talk to an NPC and enlist and pledge your service to your server. This will activate the Loyalty Ranking System and you start at Rank 1.

As you gain WXP, you will also gain Loyalty Experience (LXP) (although at a slower rate). When you rank up, you will get a Loyalty Reward Chest. The max rank is 500. However, when you hit rank 500, you still continue to gain LXP and get reward chest every time the LXP bar fills up, but your rank stays the same.

Loyalty Reward Chest is similar to WXP Rank Chest with the following exceptions:
- You can get server-exclusive items in addition to the normal WXP Rank Chest loot table. More details on this later.
- Your Magic Find when you open Loyalty Reward Chest is added the bonus from your Loyalty Rank (+ 1% extra per rank). For example: if your current MF is 250% and your Loyalty rank is 200, your MF applied to your Loyalty Reward Chest is (250 + 200=) 450%.

When you have Outnumbered buff, you will have +100% bonus boost to your normal LXP. Also add a new WvW upgrade category called Hardship Training, to increase the Outnumbered boost to your LXP furthermore, for example, like the following:
Rank 1: +100% bonus LXP when Outnumbered
Rank 2: +200%; Rank 3: +300%; … Rank 8: +800%
So at max Rank 8: when you are Outnumbered, you get a +900% boost to your LXP, meaning you gain LXP 10 times faster than normal. The WvW ability points to invest into this category can be, for example, 5/10/15/20/25/30/35/40.

There should NO OTHER WAY to boost your LXP except from this Outnumbered mechanic.

Last but not least, when a player transfers to another server, their LXP will be reset (back to 0), and to compensate, they will gain karma based on their previous Loyalty Rank in the previous server (Each rank = 1k karma, so Rank 500 = 500k karma).

Hi everyone

Recently, there have been a lot of discussion going on about fixing one of the biggest issues that are ruining WvW – otherwise a fantastic game mode of the game: population imbalance.

I encourage you to join the discussion in this thread if you have any brilliant idea on how to fix this issue: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Solution-to-fix-the-population-imbalance/first

In my opinion, most of the proposed solutions so far, while having their own merits, mainly focus on putting additional limits and restrictions or a serious overhaul to the current system, therefore might lead to negative feedback from people who would be affected by the changes and Anet could lose a significant playerbase as a result.

So in this separate thread, I would like to speak my mind and propose my solutions which provide opportunities for people to move around servers to even out between servers, eventually fixing the population imbalance issue we’re currently facing. That is, to focus on the positive rather the negative aspects.

However, I do believe that making people to move to different servers is not a hard part. The hard part is how to make them stay for as long as possible, especially on low-tier servers. The idea is to prevent the practice of server stacking as people flock to a particular server that is going to win the matchup to get more rewards. There should be incentives and greater rewards for people who decide to stay with their servers, through both ups and downs, for their loyalty, so to speak.

Below I will propose my solution to improve WvW that focuses on:
- Provide many incentives for loyal players who decide to stay on their servers for as long as possible
- Introduce Server-exclusive rewards and bolster server communities with the use of identity server logos.
- Provide many incentives for players who decide to fight against the odds of overwhelming numbers of enemies. Improve the fight mechanics in Outnumbered situations.

Warning: Its gonna be walls of text, but please read on

Hi guys, thanks for your feedback.
I just have some questions
Would a staff build be still viable without going 4pts into Arcana and grabbing Elemental Attunement trait?

If the answer is yes, then can you guys comment on what I came up with below:

1) This is based on Magusaero’s approach to conjured weapons: Link to build
With 25 might stacks (which u can easily achieve in this build), Flame Axe AA hits for around ~1k, and FGS AA hits for ~1.5kx4 = ~6k.

2) Keeping the Meteor-Nado 1-trick pony from my original build but supercharging it further (because it’s fun and it wreck faces xD): Link to build

Also, I noticed that Arcane Power only gets 1 stack of vulnerability per attack (using Shard of Ice trait in Water line), so thats 5 stacks in total (instead of 3×5 = 15 stacks). Is this a bug or intended?

PS: Sorry if I might have derailed this beautiful thread, if its the case, please PM me if u guys have any comment on the builds I just showed. Thank you so much.

Dis·il·lu·sioned
(adjective)
disappointed in someone or something that one discovers to be less good than one had believed.

(source: Google)

I guess you did him a favor by showing him he wasn’t as good as he thought. No need to apologize.

Pun intended, sorry can’t resist the urge to talk in metaphors

Hi Curunen, may i suggest sigil of cleansing as a cheap alternative to generosity as in this build, you swap weapon quite often.

D/D ele is pretty strong and fun to play but u need to build it properly.
I’m sorry to hear that you have the misleading perception that D/D ele is the worst in PvP as its very far from the truth.

Now about the build u posted.
Going D/D with Ele means you are locked into a very fast-paced playstyle with extremely high mobility (maybe this is why you like D/D). Thus condition gear is a bad choice as its for more sustained prolonged fight where u try wear down your opponent. So with D/D, its the completely opposite playstyle, you go in, you burst people health down fast, get out to heal/defend, then go in .. burst again, over time you develop a rhythm for this and you become a good D/D Ele.

As others already mentioned, in PvE Full Berserker gear is optimal, in PvP Celestial for a more balance between offense and defense.
I list here an example of an effective D/D build, it is a bit more tanky, as you get better u can go for less tanky setups.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFMQJAoYhMM6c24wyBf0AhABxtmhBFlfLXB-TVRQwA7U/JlyPe6BiqEEw+DkCIixAA-w

Hope this helps.

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

keenlam.4753:

Hi Azilyi
Thanks for this great guide. Truly inspired me to try out staff ele and I’ve been constantly practicing the combos to improve my skills.

Awesome! And now with Sigil of Earth, there opens up a whole slough of new ones too

Very exciting indeed. I’ve been experimenting a lot based on your build since the patch, playing around with the new signet of earth and tornado.
Yes Meteornado combo got nerfed but its not the end of the world.

I’m trying to make full water (instead of full fire) ele that can actually kill people in pvp and I’d like your opinion on this build I’ve come up with. Other pro staff eles, feel free to comment as well.

Link to build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWnMISdD23AuMArEGwCQI/6ULRBKfbXQA-TJxHwADeAAAuAAi2foYZAA

Now in your video, you said the defensive combo (earth + water) doesn’t deal much dmg but with this build I’ve been consistently getting total dmg of 4k+ (not counting the bleeds) from Eruption and Ice Spike. I use both Shockwave and Signet of Earth in the combo to trap the enemy more reliably.

It usually goes like this: Eruption + Unsteady Ground + Shockwave, switch to water, Frozen Ground + Ice Spike + Sig of Earth.
The signet will apply Vulnerability which in turn grants u the 20% dmg boost for both Eruption and Ice Spike as you are now Water attunement. If the enemy on low health, BTTH kicks in and thats another 20% dmg boost.

Another nice thing about this build is that with the new Tornado whirling out brutal bolts that inflict Vulnerability, Meteornado combo in this build is very devastating as well.
Meteor, switch to water, then Tornado for 20% dmg boost for both skills.

Please let me know what u think about this build and the effectiveness of these combos.
Thanks and cheers.

Just want to bump up this thread because this build is simply amazing and very fun to play.

I made some minor adjustments to the build but overall I enjoy the exact playstyle.

I switch Chaotic Dampening out for Bountiful Interruption. With BI, the dmg output from this build is much stronger than PUC build and the build becomes much more dangerous in group fights (where u can get 25 mights easily).
I also switch Phantasmal Fury out for Longer range Blink.

For utilities, Blink and Null Field are always on my bar. I know a lot hate Null Field because of its hefty long cooldown, but in this build i think the synergy is good enough to justify its use (boonrip, more chaos armor, whirling iWarden for confusion stacking on immobilized target, and cleasning against condi spike).
The 3rd utility depends on which class im up against:
- CC heavy = Decoy
- Condi heavy = iDis
otherwise, Sig of Dom is my go-to skill for extra interrupt and solid stun.

I like this build because of its uniqueness of camping in 1 attunement while being very effective. This is my version of the build: link

Again thanks for sharing, this is an easy to play build especially good for players new to condi eles.

+1

Hi OP,
The build looks very scary in offense as i can see you’re trying to make full use of BOTH bleeding and burning.
However, your sustained healing is lacking and as a condition build you should build for prolonged and sustained fight. You might have trouble against other condi classes who happen to have better sustained healing and condition removal than you.

From my experience playing ele, u need a way to keep a good uptime of regeneration.
ER Heal is nice because of short CD, but u need stability to protect your cast, best way is to get trait Rock Solid otherwise if u keep getting interrupted your sustained healing and condition removal are significantly hampered.

Now instead of just throwing out the condi build im using with lots of success, I encourage you to keep experimenting to your liking. I will give you some tips on how to make an effective condition build based on my experience with mesmer and more recently ele.

For offense:
1) Define your ‘win’ condition: that is the dmg condition u plan to stack on your enemies.
For ele, obviously its either Burning or Bleeding. Now having both is nice ofc but you might sacrifice a lot, so consider if it’s worth it.

2) Cover conditions: these conditions will make it hard for enemies to remove your ‘win’ condition while at the same time, hurt them and give u advantages in their own ways.

For defense:
1) Anti-burst active defense: in my opinion, eles excel in this department with so many tools at their disposals. You have plenty way to fit this into your build (Mist Form, Arcane Shield, Obsidian Flesh, Stone Heart, etc.)

2) Sustained healing & passive defense: this comes from gear choices, traits that give long-lasting defensive boons and healing. Again, this is something eles do not lack, you just need to consider and incorporate them into your build.

3) Condition removal: Given the condition meta, it is utmost important to have adequate condi cleansing.

Almost every build I run has 2 layers of condi cleansing:
– the baseline cleansing that removes 1-2 condition(s) on a short interval.
– the anti-spike cleansing that removes 3+ conditions on-demand.

Remember your typical condi-based enemies will also follow the principle of ‘win’ condition + crapload of cover conditions so thats why u need the extra layer of condi cleansing.

Just to end my lengthy post
I list here 2 of my condi builds that i use as examples to illustrate my points above.

Burning-based build 00446
Win condition: Arcane Power + Drake’s Breath = insane burning
Cover conditions: Bleed, Vulnerability, Immobilize, Blind (less often: Chilled, Weakness, Cripple).

Bleeding-based build 00644
Win condition: Churning Earth + Lightning Flash + Signet of Earth = insane bleeding
Cover condition: Burn, Blind, Immobilize, Cripple (less often: Chilled, Vulnerability)

Alright, hope my wall of text helps with your build theorycrafting and I’m sure you will make a good build for your own.

hi Chesire, if u dont mind running a hybrid build instead of burst build.
Try this and see those guardians melt to your fiery power: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAodhMMqb23wmBd0AdABxwzhBNlTbjB-TJRGwAAOBAJeAAh2fYZZAA

This is not a meta build so maybe something you might be interested in trying.
This build has adequate defense against CC and conditions.
Cheers.

Hi Azilyi
Thanks for this great guide. Truly inspired me to try out staff ele and I’ve been constantly practicing the combos to improve my skills.

Cripple strike does not proc outside of combat, however…
Crippling strike does have a raw dmg and thus will reveal you while in stealth, thus i highly recommend AGAINST this runeset if u run a stealth heavy build.

Link to build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW7fl0npRtdqxQNcrNSwBZqAc6PMiNg6WEjKC-TJRHwAQLDUZ/hCPBAAXEAA

Just a fresh idea to make a build with lots of condi pressure, torment stacking, and … bounces. Gotta love the bounces.

Please provide constructive feedback.

Thank you and have a good day.

I’m with skcamow on the point that the build needs to be focused either towards Phantasm or Shatter style.

From my experience, MoP can be used in both specs.

For example, for a shatter build, you can go with something like this 44006 (this is something modified from Vashury’s shatter build). Basically with this spec, the blink-shatter combo becomes stronger with the added dmg from MoP (I usually perform Mind Wrack + Power Spike simultaneously for the oomph effect)
I dont take HM because you don’t need the extra charge, 2 proper shatter bursts with added dmg from 2 MoP charges will down even the bunkiest.
I only take HM if I want to make use of the MoR + Mender’s synergy.

As for a phantasm build, I think the playstyle would be a little more sustained and less bursty so you can go with something like this 26060 for great sustained dmg pressure and healing.

Anyway, Chaos, I’m happy to join you with the experimenting, so hit me up in-game when you’re free.

Hi OP,
I ‘ve been running Mantra of Pain for a long time on my mesmer even before the aoe buff and I must admit its pretty strong due to its instant cast and the mesmer can use it anytime (even when being cc’d).

MoP when it doesn’t crit, its dmg is comparatively low, just like autoattack. However, crit dmg from MoP can hit for 2k+ per charge.

There are two main ways mesmers use this skill:
1) Incorporate it into their normal burst rotation
or 2) Wait until enemy at low health and use it as more like a finishing move.

So like skcamow mentioned above, best strategy is to keep a constant eye on the mesmer buff bar to see how many charges currently available for use and manage your health accordingly.

Save your interrupt for when the mesmer runs out of charge and try to recharge the mantra out in the open. However, most mesmers will use stealth or stability to cover this long recharge time (2.75s) so make use of this time to heal yourself up and take a breather if you can’t interrupt them.

If you have access to Weakness condition, try to keep it on the mesmer as much as you can to reduce the dmg spike from MoP and don’t forget to steal that Fury boon from the mesmer. This is of course in addition to your normal defensive tools.

Hope this helps.

PS: the charges remain for a very long time so don’t count on waiting them out

Is there any other teleport skills bugged out like Phase Retreat? what about teleport skills on other classes?

Awesome vid, thanks for the great guide.

Does signet of stone work against Retaliation, you receive no retaliation dmg during 6s duration or the boon actually bypasses this signet active effect?

Thank you.

@Impact

Thank you for your clarification about poison and healing power.
You seem to be quite knowledgeable about the class and strike me as a cool-headed guy among the thief community.

Regarding to the suggestion to go for SA D/D Backstab build or S/D build, I just want to make clear that I’ve done a fair bit of research and do know about all the mainstream/meta builds. However, this is not what I’m going for, I simply just enjoy exploring some new options outside of meta.

I was one of the few mesmers running clone-death condi builds and got laughed at before PU condi mesmer became the new meta and clone-death condi variants got popular.
So while I appreciate your good intention and useful advice, I must respectfully disregard most of them.

However, I agree with you about the Vigorous Recovery trait being underused in this setup, so I shall take on your advice and swap out for Pain Response.

Also, about the power stat being a bit low, my excuse is that I’m just using what I have at the moment as well as going tanky so I can get used to the playstyle before committing into glasscannon-ish gear. From your experience, how much power should I aim for? With this build, I pretty much have 5+ might stacks at all time, would that boost the power stat to a decent level?

Again, thanks very much for your comprehensive feedback.

@Esplen
Thanks for your clarification as well.

OP, your idea works great actually.
I’ve been using something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBlYDbkRlWWLZxZFqWDEIULHgAo5McDuTimIsPZFf5F-TpxFABWVGIhDCQvHBgdvAAA8AAOZ/BA

or this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBlYDbkRlWWLZxZFqWEEIULHgAo1NwaBcnENRYfyK+yL-TpxFABJcQA69IAs7FA4pyAA8AAOZ/BA

Just want to be diffferent from those zerker LB rangers i guess but it turned out great so far. The amount of bleed and burn is insane.

Hi guys

I’m fairly new to thief class so go easy on me.
I’ve been experimenting with some build options and this is what I come up with:
A backstab build relies more on evasion than stealth (link)

As there are 3 main ways to regain health during combat
- Signet of Malice
- Invigorating Precision
- Assassins’ Reward
I just want to ask which ones can be affected by poison and healing power stat?

Also, has any pro thief out there experimenting with similar builds like this before? What is your experience? Ive been having good results so far.

Any constructive feedback is welcome.

oxtred.7658:

I thought staff phantasm had the highest theorical dps? I don’t know, I suck at mesmer.

iWarlock has potentially the highest dmg per attack, but because it attacks much less frequently than iswordman —> lower dps, not to mention the projectile can miss.

Hi EoLtheCrow,
If u still want to run a PU build, this is what I’m running, I’m calling it Hidden Marksman of Pain.

It’s a power PU build based on the idea of bursting from range with really high crit dmg and crit chance. Fully buffed, you can get 100% crit chance quite easily. I’m using the runes for on-demand Fury, but if u with an organised group that can reliably give u Might and Fury, u can use other options to boost stats of your choice.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

I do wonder if there’s any cap in endurance refilling rate though, like what we have in condition duration. So vigor already caused endurance refilling rate to go 100% faster, do you get 240% refilling rate (100% base rate + 100% vigor + 40% food) by combining vigor with this food?

Endurance regen is capped at double rate (100% faster with Vigor) so no stacking unfortunately. However, the additional 40% regen rate at all time is still very nice.

I use this food with Rune of Evasion, so effectively i can actively use the 4th passive effect of Rune of the Pack every 10s.
Now if only Anet fixes the boon duration bug on this runeset

@Chaos Archangel:
I dont think this runeset will be of any use for dps builds, but it does spark me some idea towards tanky/bunkery setup where you build to take hits.
Vulnerability stacking + Retaliation can then be used to boost your dmg output to a decent level even in your most tanky gear, making it hard for enemies to kill you.

Maybe something like this: 0/4/6/4/0

Neptune.2570:

I personal dislike condi on a Mesmer. It feels passive and doesn’t engage me.
I’ll continue to play shatter, but 100% understand people going condi mes after testing. Is one hell of a strong side point build.

I feel you, I was in the same boat until I found myself a CI condi build mixing with Interrupt for might-stacking and more movement control on enemies. Definitely more fun to play while also very effective.

The boons procced from the runes are not getting the boon duration bonus at the moment. I suppose its a bug? Hope Anet fix it soon.

Hi OP, you should totally try the Lightning Rod + Tornado combo, its pretty fun.

Hi there
I just feel the need to revive this thread so we can warmly show our gratitude for buffing mesmers this patch.

Not sure about u guys but I am happy with most of the changes, especially Anet did deliver in terms of promised bug fixes (cough… iWarden…cough).
Also I can feel much love in the new sexy animation of MoP and MoD. Nicely done.

So thank you Anet.

Coxy.5269:

A few queries:

Do the boons proc out of combat?
Are there any internal cooldowns?
Whats the AoE on the dodge roll?

If I get favourable answers to those, I will absolutely love this runeset

It does proc out of combat (it procs after the dodge, not immediately when u dodge).
Cooldowns 10s for the boon proc, 9s for cripple proc.

I dont know about the aoe radius of cripple yet.