Guild Wars 2

This is a WvW focused Condition build but transfers over to PvE fine.

As stated the confusion aspect isn’t as good in PvE but the bleed stacks and burn ticks are good enough to kill things.

I usually cast warden when running into a fight then sword 3 and dodge for my initial 3 illusion shatter, it will hit a few times but anyone who’s close to decent will move.

IMO it’s hard to lose as Mesmer underwater…..

Here is a 6v1 clip where I win…..build

http://www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=mGCbKVRhQBs

Turbo Whale.1738:

This looks like something due for a nerf. The 66% to apply confusion on being hit is absolutely ridiculous. The idea behind the build is that enemies are forced to kill themselves just from playing the game considering chaos armor can be kept up for an extremely long time and cannot be stripped. Very nice build however and it looks like tons of fun. I will definitely be trying it out.

100% agree mate, it does need balancing, players either hit you and kill themself from confusion or they dont hit you and die from your burns and bleeds.

roamzero.9486:

How does this build work in big zergy battles? Opposed to a full glamour build?

Glamour is better for zergs, this build needs clones and for players to focus you, your clones die too quick in zergs and you wont get focused much.

Here is a few clips of the build in 5 man play. Anything bigger and Glamour is better.

Gelltor.3015:

Condition removal isn’t great,the only reliable way for swiftness is with a focus off hand.
And most players will see you as a walking teleport/time warp dispenser!

Null Field is fine for condition removal imo, rune of the centaur and focus give 100% swiftness uptime too.

renegade.4851:

as gelltor said cond removal, bad mobility (not taking portal into account when you just have to go from A to B ), bunkering (bad heals since mantra’s have an immense casting time that will always be interrupted, and bad cond removal), condition damage

We can bunker with the best of them, along with the immortal mesmer build linked we have my Condition Tank build.

Morten Sorensen.6954:

hi what upgrade components do you use in your jewelry, and are your weapons rabid?

Hi, I use a gem with rabid stats, cant fine and exceptional yet that has them.

alexparris.3754:

Build looks good- I will have to try it out.

Just thinking, would the scepter/torch be a better combo for stacking confusion, or perhaps sword/torch? I guess the leap from sword into a combo field gives more uptime on chaos armor etc (Sorry, unable to view the video at the moment, so cannot see your full reasons for sword/focus)

Also, would this build work for PVE? Perhaps swapping the odd trait and ability for different situations. I currently use a phantasm build, which is great, but I feel its not massively effective in WvW.

I am not great at money making on here so unable to keep flicking between specs and gear for PVE/WvW.

Cheers.

Hi, I dont do much PvE so cant really give advice on that side of the game. With staff alone you can keep chaos armour up for over 1:30 in a row. I usually play with staff exclusively unless I need the utility of my weapon swap such as temporal curtain to pull theifs out of shadow refuge or the leap on sword to try and catch runners, you will see what I mean if you get a chance to watch the fighting video linked in the first post

Chesire.9043:

Interesting setup.

I’ve since changed my sPvP setup to 0/0/20/20/30 for my glamour build, and still use 20/0/0/20/30 for WvW/PvE however I don’t run with the standard Rabid armor that everyone else seems to use.

I like unique builds though. My only gripe with yours is that you don’t have Phantasmal Fury and instead have that crappy Desperate Decoy trait. That trait fails far too often in my experience. PF would give your Warden some bleed damage, allow you to use him both for defense and offense (he stacks bleeds faster than iDuelist iirc) and dropping him in the middle of a zerg would do wonders. It’s just a better option imo since I’m assuming you have a decent amount of crit chance.

@alexperris

Sceptor/Torch is what I use to stack confusion with my build, especially since Confusing Images got buffed. I used Torch with Sword in sPvP though and it’s honestly more defensive than offensive. You use 2 for obvious uses, use iLeap to gain Chaos Armor from your Combo Fields to maintain it as long as possible and can use Torch 4 for the same purpose or use it defensively to heal or try and escape. The iMage has a really slow attack speed but his confusion stacks do hurt a little bit (or a lot if you stack with him). But I would only use this combo if you need defense, not offense. Scepter is much better at stacking confusion now and you can still use Torch 4 to gain Chaos Armor.

The stealth on 25% trait has saved me a fair few times tbh, I rarly use the Warden due to him dieing too quickly in zergs and the fact you can simply move away from him. the extra 20% crit might help a little on the warlock but the Clones can out damage him with this spec anyway so only use him if required to keep 3 clones up.

I only mass WvW when with my guild.

Solo play in WvW is massively under rated when you apply yourself. Everyone can solo flip supply camps but push the boundaries and see what your able to do.

Method 1 to solo towers
Method 2 to solo Towers
Going up against a fully upgraded Supply Camp

This Mesmer spec is excellent for solo roaming and small group play, with its utility skills it also has great functionality in Zerg play.

With the gear you can also swap your spec for 3s and play glamour for large scale WvW but your solo roaming ability will diminish greatly IMO.

Don’t think it ever will, same as the guardian staff skill.

If turning down your settings didn’t help then maybe change how you play WvW.

In my oppinion Zerg v Zerg is not the best way to play at all unless its organised guild events.

Playing solo and in small teams can be extremely efficient even you know what to do and when to do it.

Examples ….. First way to solo Towers, Second way to solo towers, Solo v Fully upgraded Supply Camp

In my oppinion the Mesmer is the best “support” class while still being able to hold its own.

This is the spec I run when solo, especially when roaming in WvW and find it perfect for my play style as you are strong solo but also able to offer high levels of utility when you find a group.

For large scale WvW swap to the Glamour spec and your support spells will be further enhanced.

Both spectacular have Feedback (reflect all ranged attacks), Null Field (strips boons from enemy and conditions from allies and either portal (movement utility) or Veil (stealth utility) for the elites time warp offers quickness to most people who stand in it during the duration.

I play my Mesmer almost exclusively with Staff, in WvW it’s pretty devastating in my oppinion.

When solo roaming I use this and melt faces. When playing mass WvW I swap to a glamour spec and use the staff for survivability and chaos storm.

Mesmer gets my vote.

THIS spec is awsome for solo roaming in WvW. A quick 3s trait swap to one of the glamour specs gives an awsome mass WvW spec with no need to change gear either.

Nice little overview of condition based sigils and runes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=1010cbiaWY0

Mesmer gets my vote.

Veil, feedback, null field and time warp = crap loads of utility.

They have good specs for all gameplay (PvE,pop,WvW,solo) and can kite very well too.

This is my solo roamer spec and it works great.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Samski-s-Condition-Tank-Mesmer/first#post1692296

I’m away from my computer due to work right now so have been unable to check but a friend who plays my spec has said they think something changed in the last patch as they are seeing higher confusion stacks now.

I’m glad people are starting to check the spec out and see how strong it truly is. If they have fixed the bug with Chaos armour I can’t wait to check out how strong the build is in 1vx!

Another vote for rabid stat gear.

What will you be doing ? Roaming solo ? 5 manning ? Serving ? Objective defending ?

My fav build for roaming and Objective defending is linked in my dog, the glamour build is probably the best for 5 man + and zergs.

Conditions all the way!

This is my prefered Mesmer build, good at solo roaming in WvW, it shouldn’t cost as much as your ele has but it is on the higher end of the gear mark.

The gear also works well for the glamour build so you can swap quickly between roaming and Zerg fighting.

This is my favourite solo build, especially useful in WvW.

moms favorite.9614:

liked your wvw video showing your build.. can’t wait for your next one

Cheers mate, got the footage for a medium scale WvW video of one of our 5 man parties going up against groups at least double our size.

Also working on a 1vx video but that will take a while got a few 1v3, 1v4 and 1v5 clips with one 1v6.

Got projects going with soloing fully upgraded supply camps and a keep too so watch this space

I got the cheaper one and it has a build in transmution so you can put it on whatever you like, dont really see any other difference.

It’s on my list of things to do

Helios.3598:

so you went with confusion on blind, but not blind on glamour?

Yes, I have explained the reasoning behind it a few times in the thread so far but basically its to increase your chance of getting blind stacks from chaos armor from 1/3 upto 2/3.

So it happens even when its taken by a group ? I havent had the chance to check myself since I noticed it happens.

This is the reason I take the Wardens focus trait instead of the glamor duration one for glamor spec.

Mesmer is riddled with bugs right now

Been experimenting and it seems WvW Tower bosses will bug out and not attack you around 50% of the time when you fight them. I cant see anywhere this has been reported before so though I would start my own thread.

Video here….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGW_9RwssX0

Added newest attempt to the OP to show a different entry strategy.

http://youtu.be/WGW_9RwssX0

Just tested it for about 15 mins and failed to duplicate the results, I suspect there was someone else in the area of the fight the OP describes.

The results of some testing less than a month ago……

All excellent explanations above, This video may help show how instead of having 5 seconds of Chaos Armor up every 28 seconds you are able to keep it up for 1:30 due to combo fields and leap finishers.

The borderlands are fine for grinding them for short periods of time around the two events in their but for long term grinding I dont think its worth it due to suspected high DR kick in.

I have this video about it…

Added the 6v1 underwater combat video to the OP to show how overpowered staff based mesmers are with the games current underwater combat system.

Operation Baruch Freedom.

A small crack team of FURY were dropped behind enemy lines to enforce the required standard of discipline upon a group of Riverside players using cheap tactics against Baruch Bay.

You have to make the choice yourself, both have good and bad points, you can get the raw damage quicker with condition damage and reduce the chance of the condition being stripped by the player or you can try maximise your damage overtime but risk players stripping your condition stacks off.

I think most classes have a tanky way to spec.

I have played Guardian, Elementalist and Mesmer tanks/bunkers all with success.

Here are my two fav grinding spots in game right now….

Also sometimes it is not work your time gathering at every node you pass, when im grind node mates I dont bother with elder wood I keep hunting for mithril as its more time/cost effective especially when mithril was 50c an ore and elder wood was 7c.

Confusion does damage for any action, that includes utility skills as well as your dodge roll if your dodge roll has something attached to it like spawn a clone, heal you, drops calotraps.

It also does its damage before the action is completed so if you are trying to heal and you dont have the health to survive the confusion damage before your heal health is applied then you go to a downed state.

In WvW I have had confusion tick as high as 4500-4750 depending on the stacks so its good to heal early.

My bad regarding the Might stacks and Fury, over look on my part, to my knowledge though it can give you Sigil of Earth procs and ensure you are always on the internal cooldown. Due to the additional damage potential from the Bleeds and Burns I still maintain it is a better Trait for this build then the Blind on Confusion one.

With this build the idea is you play it so your enemy are able to attack you and keep getting confusion stacked on them so you usually are within the range of the rebound. Due to the fact of having chaos armor up so much the enemy arnt given much time where they don’t have confusion stacks on them so it is more of a gradual wear down against good opponents not a overload with lots of stacks at once.

So I maintain that the Bleed and Burn calculations are still accurate for PvP. If you watch the fights video there is a clip where a player dies due to damage from confusion, illusionary elasticity and the odd dodged clone that doesnt attack what it is meant to. It is supprising how much that happens in WvW too and Illusionary Elasticity helps with it, I know they are bad players to allow this to happen but WvW is full of bad players.

Snoxx.7943:

And with Illusonary Persona you can apply one extra confusion every time you shatter, or two with the F2 shatter. Alongside with many other benefits you get from this trait.

But if you plan on keeping chaos armor up, mostly with ethereal combo fields, you should drop Illusionary Elasticity and get the blind-on-glamour trait instead. You’re putting down the glamour fields anyway. Together with confusion-on-blind the extra confusion is better than the extra bounce from staff auto attack.

As I said: You take them both or none!

Check my reply to Shakezoola regarding Illusionary Persona, in my oppinion for this spec confusion on blind is better than Illusionary Persona due to the reasons stated.

As I said regarding your both or none comment, I Disagree. I see no reason to drop Illusionary Elasticity for Blind on Glamour, Yes I would get two extra blinds and two extra confusion stacks once every ~40 seconds but I much rather have Winds of Chaos bounce, not only to apply additional Burns and Bleeds and get me additional Superior Sigil of Earth Procs, but also for its Fury and Might stacks on myself further increasing the base damage of Winds of Chaos.

The tooltip says Winds of Chaos has a cast time of 3/4 of a second so in 40 seconds it has the potential to cast ~53 times. That’s 52 additional bounces from Illusionary Elasticity, if we presume it has an even spread for its boons and conditions that’s ~17 stacks of Bleed and ~17 seconds of Burn from Winds of Chaos its self, in addition to its white damage and Sigil of Earth Procs, in addition to this it gives ~26 chances to apply Might or Fury to yourself or Allies. I just don’t see how that even compares to 2 Blinds and 2 Confusion stacks. In addition to this there is also the potential that Anet will fix the suspected bug with staff clones and Illusionary Elasticity giving your staff clones the additional bounce also.

Snoxx.7943:

In your case I’m wondering about your 30 points choice in the Illusions tree. Why on earth do you take the confusion-on-blind trait without having the blind-on-glamour trait? This makes no sense at all. You take them both or none! Otherwise Illusionary Persona is much better, especially since you are using a melee weapon (1h sword).

I Disagree, theres method on my madness The Blind on glamour is only one of our hand full of options to apply Blind.

Chaos Armor has a passive 1/3 chance to add a confusion stack to your enemies who are attacking you. The confusion on blind trait increases this to 2/3 chance to add Confusions stacks and the ones added from the trait actually last longer than the standard passive ones enabling you to stack mid to high Confusion stacks through out combat.

With THIS spell rotation you are able to keep Chaos Armor up for around 1:30-1:40 with out losing it for any long period of time so for 1:30-1:40 you have a 2/3 chance to apply confusion stacks to all enemy players attacking you.

Thanks for the further feedback guys, I am planning on starting a texted based version too but due to going away with work for a few weeks it maybe the end of the month before I manage to get it online.

EasymodeX.4062:

this being incorrect, since the boons stack in duration.

I havent had a chance to test this yet, just out of curiosity have you tested it ? Boons are meant to stack in duration but the focus swiftness doesnt stack if you already have swiftness applied, same with the guardian staff swiftness, perhaps it is the same here.

I know the reason behind the focus and guardian staff swiftness not stacking but I guess it could kind of apply here too even though the chance to get swiftness and the short duration kind of remove the need to it.

I’m guessing your play direct damage due to the lack of Runes of Undead up there.

I think i’m going to swap over to Centaur soon for the 100% Swiftness uptime when roaming and moving across the maps.

This is from a condition perspective but it still might be helpful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1010cbiaWY0

Churick.9354:

I noticed pvt mesmer mentioned- is there an accepted cookie cutter build?

I think The Immortal Mesmer is PVT there’s a thread on the board.

I use Fraps too, you can check out the recording quality of it from the link to my youtube channel in my sig.

The recorded files will still be huge but it shouldent slow your system down too much.

Hmm, 5 man is tricky in my opinion, your at the stage where your in between what I would say is the best spec. Your on the higher end of the Condition Tanks Utility but lower end of the glamor Utility.

In my opinion the Condition tank is better than Glamor for solo play and upto around 4 or 5 people but if you play in mass WvW too then Glamor has the edge. Maybe deck your char out in Rabit gear and just respec as required ? Thats what I do.

In my oppinion Glamour is the best build for utility. I run with Veil instead of Mirror Images and Time Warp instead of Mass Invis, trait wise due to the glamour field duration bugs I run with Wardens Feedback instead of Temporal Enchanter and crippling dispisition instead of Rendering Shatter.

This way I can reflect projectiles in two ways, strip conditions from allies, strip boons from foes, AOE Blind enemies with Glamor spells, Give Quickness for 10 Seconds to at least 5 people, cripple people buff allies with might and fury from Winds of Chaos and use the utility of Chaos Storm.

In my opinion theres not many builds I can think of with that much utility in one player.

Ramiah.5648:

Interesting. I was thinking most of our stats transferred to illusions, and wasn’t aware that condduration wouldn’t affect them. Forgetting the iWarlock completely is odd, but I can see how that would help if you are focused on condition damage, since the clones could stack conditions faster and that’s where my damage is.
Thanks for the input.

To my knowledge the iWarlock stacks with Power currently too, with a condition build you wont be having much power to pump its DPS, I usualy spawn it just for the first shatter then only respawn it when needed to get a 3rd illusion up.

Also in WvW there are other things to take into consideration such as high Might stacks that the Mesmer would not be able to achieve normally, also high Fury uptime and high Vulnerability stacks on the enemy. Without a link to the video your referring to I cant confirm this but it I would say at least in some of the clips this is whats giving them so much additional damage.