Guild Wars 2

Giving healing power upon interrupt isn’t a bad idea per se, it’s rather unique actually. They just needed to do these two things 1) make each interrupt stack duration and 2) increase healing power scaling of restorative mantras.

I could see some decent uses for the trait then, and would make it worthy of a GM.

I do like all your ideas, though not sure about the condition removal one since we already have shattered conditions as a GM in the same line.

skcamow.3527:

Josh Davis.6015:

Good morning mesmers,

Going to touch on a few items that are still being reported as issues post 4/15.

• Portal: This utility was given a skill-fact for range (5000). I personally like the suggestion of mini-map markers, and I’ll bring it up with the team, but I don’t think that was ever planned for this release. Sorry for the confusion.
• Illusionary Elasticity: I’ll have this looked at again.
• Illusionary Warden: We made some changes for Illusionary Warden for 4/15. Can you guys elaborate on how its behaving now?
• Illusionary Counter issues with MS/IC: These issues are still open in our tracker and did not make it into this release.

That’s all for now. Feel free to respond with any additional issues you guys discover post-patch.

Thanks!

Hey Grouch, any follow up on these, specifically the iWarden, Illusionary Elasticity and Triumphant Distortion reports?

Grouch, surely you haven’t forgotten us …

Cause the trait is literally that bad. I’ve personally expended probably too many cycles trying to think of something that would be even remotely doable, let alone viable. Just a big blank where this trait is concerned. I honestly think the devs thought restorative mantras was better than reality, as that’s one of the justifications they used for usage.

Supcutie was playing thief today btw, not ranger. Either way, sad yes that Mesmer still hasn’t found it’s way into the NA tournament meta.

Xyonon.3987:

Is it viable to go staff + gs with an interruption build? :s

Yes, see build in my signature (still need to update w/new patch), works decent.

25% base crit chance means a crit and likely proc of the sigil every 4 attacks. With the sigil’s 1s cooldown, you’re going to proc it just enough to make it worth it. Now, take into consideration the fury from both WoC and diversion and you’re in much better shape. That said, energy ofc is a great alternative. I just personally prefer strength (or battle as I suggested).

This purely from a PvP perspective …

OP – I’ve run a very similar trait spread for a few days now after over a week of experimenting with BD builds. I thought about sharing it after getting some good in-game feedback but I’m not 100% confident in it yet (still testing).

I’ve run a boon share, power based and IP based build with BD but I can say that this condition spec here is the strongest BD build I’ve run, BUT I’m running some very key differences from you that I’ll detail here:

• Scepter vs Sword. While iLeap is certainly helpful in landing shatters, it’s definitely not mandatory. Among other key things, scepter helps with your clone generation, which you really need in this build without DE.
• Mender’s Purity vs Vigorous Revelation. If you can find a way to make the build work with VR w/out that condi-removal, by all means. I stay alive MUCH longer with MP. Besides, I’ve tried (really) to make a boon share build work with BD, and it just doesn’t very well. I’ve accepted the fact I’m going to have a largely selfish BD build.
• Illusionary Invigoration vs Illusionary Elasticity. It’s paramount that Ill Inv is taken for more shatters. The only way I’d think about switching to IE would be if Anet fixes IE for our clones.
• Mirror Images, Mantra of Resolve and Decoy (or Blink) for utilities. Mirror Images is probably the most important aspect of this build in order to keep as many illusions up as possible for shattering. Disenchanter just doesn’t work for me in this build, but if you can make it work, by all means.
• Celestial Amulet vs Rabid. It may seem like an odd choice, but it’s not. It works, and decently. Just try it out and you’ll see what I mean.
• Rune of Balthazar vs Undead. You have so much more going for you with this set, more condition output primarily, but the quickness is amazing at 20% and extra burn duration on prestige burn is great.
• Runes of strength/battle and doom. These immensely help your damage and condition output.

Every one of those bullets have been vital to the build working cohesively for me. Most of those choices have a lot of explanation behind them. If there is expressed interest, I will go into more detail on them and skill rotations/strategies/combos I’ve discovered so far. It would literally take a full post.

Yes mobility sux, it just is what it is. In PvP it’s not that big a deal though and you at least have phase retreat blink.

Here’s the build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW7flknpTtFpxRNcrNSwBZ6A8gIeqPg6W8jKC-TJRGwAAeCAZ2fgwFBYZZAA

Final disclaimer – I don’t like BD as it is currently – it’s underpowered for a GM trait, BUT I think a build like this could potentially work and has worked decently for me so far (pending further testing).

Just so happens to be a beginner’s PvP guide stickied at the top of the sPvP forum. Decent info here, and Grouch updated it with the new patch info:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/New-to-PvP-Start-here/first

Also check the mesmer guide to solo que in pyro’s signature, moar good info there.

trooper.2650:

Sorry to hijack the 3d.
What happens with on “hit sigils”? Lets say sigil of ice: 30% on hit to inflict 2sec of chill.
Is it 30% on illusions hits too or just my hits?

Should be just your own

In my extensive testing since the patch broke, BD is intensely underwhelming. I’ve tried numerous builds to see if anything could be made at least something to think about.

In fact, I tried 0/4/6/0/4 (in a power spec though) and considered it briefly only by at the very least taking illusionary invigoration and optionally bountiful interruption. At least 20 in illusions is required to get anything out of BD due to shatter recharges, and you have that. Anything less than 20 makes BD so much worse than it already is. Overall the power spec with this trait spread just doesn’t work that well in my personal experience. As boon share – adequate but high recharge on SoI is meh. As a damage spec, it pales in comparison to a CI build.

Along the lines of your condition spec here, other than the advice I already gave – I personally would switch to a competent bleed proc’ing phantasm. This means you ditch OH sword for pistol or go with GS. Then you need to take sigils that buff might, either strength/battle, and ideally a rune set that adds additional damage to your build, not just stat buffing. Just my 2 cents.

As far as BD goes in general, you have to find a way to make the trait even worth taking, meaning the boons on ALL shatters have to mean something and you’re not forcing anything just to get the boons (very important). I have a build that I believe might be workable (pyro hates it ofc, ha!) but will need a lot more testing in order for me to be confident in it, and I intend to do just that.

If you want to keep testing, by all means. I’m personally not going to defend BD, because the trait is not grandmaster quality and it irks me that Anet thinks it is (along with disruptor’s sustainment, UGH). This however doesn’t mean we can’t, or shouldn’t keep experimenting as you (and I) have. Heck, most of the GW2 mesmer world shunned chaotic interruption for months before someone experimented with it and voila, you briefly saw it reach tPvP meta level. BD is not as strong as CI but I’m just trying to make a point that experimenting is a good thing, even on crappy traits. It’ll at best end up with something that’s surprisingly workable or at worst cement the trait’s garbage reputation. If you’re having fun at the end of it all though, you’re golden.

Just some really bad karma for mesmers I guess.

So Anet didn’t fix many of the bugs they promised with the feature patch.

To make matters worse, they introduced an unintended bug with power block, putting mesmers in a better spot, then fixed.

To add insult to injury, they released an unintended “npc” bug, then fixed.

Both of the above made us stronger and feel like nerfs, but sadly aren’t.

All of this I’d gladly set aside if they’d release a build with a fix for the iWarden.

The point I was trying to make was more along the lines of trying to build on-death AND shatter at the same time. It just seems like a house divided unto itself. This build isn’t really doing that – seems you were intent on going 30 into dueling anyway.

(Incidentally, someone has approached me to test an on-death/shatter build recently and I’ll see for myself if it works or not.)

The power damage you’re getting appears quite deceiving at first glance when I see rabid amulet. The question about the mind wracks was assuming 10-15 might stacks, which you said you commonly maintain. Just check the damage log to see what you’re averaging.

Couple more thoughts. If you’re seeing good results from your MW’s, you could consider to swap master of misdirection with precise wrack. Not sure how much increased confusion duration is helping anyway. Also as Nike said I would consider swapping IE for Ill Inv. I can’t see IE being that useful for a more condi focused build for mirror blade. Obviously for Staff it’s good.

@Raunchy, yeah windwalker is correct, damage modifiers only apply to power.

Raunchy.6891:

This build is actually pretty interesting. Also this is one of the rare instances where mirror images is a fine choice. Imo the dueling gm minor is one of our best traits for condi builds so I like that you went that far into dueling since most people don’t.

On-death and shatter styles can create somewhat of an identity crisis though.

OP – honestly not sure what that 7% damage modifier is going to do with such low base power. I wonder if an on-heal set would be better due to the 3 power returns. That said, you seem aware of this. With the might stacking, how hard are your mind wracks hitting for?

shimmerless.4560:

skcamow.3527:

Side note: I love the quickness on 20% health on this set and orrian. I even set out to theory-craft a quickness build a few months back using them with signets of rage, furious interruption and time warp just to see what would be possible. Then in testing I found both balth and orrian runes only proc’d the quickness at 10% health (not the advertised 20%). I have yet to validate that bug was fixed but will probably try to do that and validate the clone condi duration this week.

The best use I could find for Dueling XII (after the change) was for power scepter, it has good synergy with something like Magic Bullet and you can land a lot more Confusing Images ticks that you otherwise wouldn’t. Works even better with the new Sigil of Rage too.

Yeah I said signet of rage there but meant sigil. The buffed sigil is really nice now, much more viable to use than before. Might be nice to use in a balthazar rune build that uses mantras (like Osi’s new one) to help charge them more quickly. Ofc it’s RnG and you can’t time it well, but would be interesting to mess with nonetheless.

Nicely done, Osi. That 10s internal CD is just nasty, especially when using mantra heal which procs the #6 on both the mantra charge and each separate power return heal.

I posted more research on burn duration and balth runes here if anyone is interested.

EDIT: Osi, I’m also interested in how you would change this up (if you even would), if Anet fixed illusionary elasticity.

I had my doubts but Osi you proved me wrong. The 10s internal cooldown is so short and works perfectly (as you have demostrated in your build vid) with using mantra heals. The thing about that is, the rune procs the #6 AoE burn on both the mantra charge and each separate power return heal.

So I did a bit of additional testing (in the mists) with clones and burn/condi duration for FWIW.

• Personal WoC AA burns with proper duration using both condition duration (via domination line) and duration with the balth runes.
• Clone WoC AA burns inherit your personal condition duration correctly (domination line).
• Clone WoC AA burns do not inherit the burning duration from balth runes.
• Clone WoC AA bleeds do not inherit your personal condition duration (yeah weird but true).

As good as the runes are now for most classes (including mesmers it seems), if illusionary elasticity worked with our clones, so so nasty.

Yeah this is well known and been reported as a bug. No extra damage is done.

Also about bountiful disillusionment, you actually get 3 stacks of might on cry of frustration (not one).

Obviously it doesn’t work per illusion, but if you are at least 5 into illusions for shattered strength you get an immediate 6 long lasting might stacks. I run runes of strength in addition and almost always proc an extra stack from them. It’s quite decent, but still in my testing so far not GM trait worthy.

The trick to unlocking all the skins in PvP is to leave the zone and re-zone. I’ve heard that when you re-zone all the skins are there for you. Neither here nor there at this point I guess.

Also another comment, Pyro perpetually seems much lower in volume than Shan and Chaos.

Great podcast

This looks very, very similar to countless’s current build but yeah after watching his streams for a long time now I can say that although it looks a bit odd at first, it can be quite effective for soloq pvp. I’m still not completely sold on the tpvp potential, but I have to say that countless uses portal excellently and it always seems to either 1) keep him alive or 2) decap points and give his team an edge.

1v1’s seem fairly trivial, in fact countless has a couple vids posted on his twitch page of him beating magic toker (one of the best thieves NA currently) twice in one match. Really good fights.

All that to say, the things I like about this build are that although it’s arguably not the best mesmer build to run in PvP, it’s full of unconventional ideas, wonderfully estranged from the meta, and has been proven it can work.

Yeah these are all the rage with the new patch, especially for professions who can churn out the burn. Unfortunately mesmer is not among the elite in that area, but I recall some builds people have posted in the past to maximize condition/burn duration. This gets the most out of our (and our clones) burn ticks, and therein lies the problem …

Originally our clones did not inherit our condition duration. Anet ninja fixed this problem in a patch months ago but in a later patch the problem arose again. I’ve not tested this since the new patch but intend to. Bottom line is that if clones do not inherit our condition/burn duration, using balthazar runes isn’t probably going to fare well.

Side note: I love the quickness on 20% health on this set and orrian. I even set out to theory-craft a quickness build a few months back using them with signets of rage, furious interruption and time warp just to see what would be possible. Then in testing I found both balth and orrian runes only proc’d the quickness at 10% health (not the advertised 20%). I have yet to validate that bug was fixed but will probably try to do that and validate the clone condi duration this week.

Yeah there was quite a bit of analysis on DS pre-patch and in my mind if they allowed the trait to stack in duration, it might have some potential. I’m not sure even then, but it would at least have enticed me enough to unlock it to play around with it. At the moment I have no desire to whatsoever.

That said, I can’t deny I’m curious though for anyone who is running it or have tried it.

SaintSnow.6593:

Paralyzation sigil increases stun duration not daze. Mesmer runes increase daze duration. Both work as intended. I don’t notice any increases in dazes with para

On the contrary, para sigil also works to extend mesmer daze duration IF you’re not also taking mesmer runes or confounding suggestions. Feel free to test it yourself and I’d much appreciate the validation if you do.

Again I’m not sure if it worked this way prior to the most recent patch. I do know that para sigils did not work to stack daze duration with CS or mesmer runes.

Can’t double up two para sigils on the same weapon set.

I know there have been questions about this over the past months and not any concrete answers. Good research has been done in this thread.

Following the recent patch I wanted to get some fresh testing on this. Here are my results. I used a stopwatch and tested each scenario numerous times. I did not capture frames in a recording but these are very close and I’m confident in them.

• CS alone: 1.5s daze (ummm … uh … ’nuff said on that xD)
• Mez Rune alone: 1.3s daze
• Para Sigil alone: 1.3s daze

• CS+Mez Rune: 1.75s daze (stack)
• CS+Para Sigil: 1.5s daze (do not stack)
• CS+Para Sigil+Mez Rune: 1.75s daze (do not stack)

• Mez Rune+Para Sigil: 1.3s daze (do not stack)

Besides the obvious thing I won’t call attention to, I personally didn’t realize para sigils extended daze duration when taken by themselves with no other daze duration sources.

Hope this helps someone, and I’d love any validation if anyone is willing, especially on that one item.

Josh Davis.6015:

Good morning mesmers,

Going to touch on a few items that are still being reported as issues post 4/15.

• Portal: This utility was given a skill-fact for range (5000). I personally like the suggestion of mini-map markers, and I’ll bring it up with the team, but I don’t think that was ever planned for this release. Sorry for the confusion.
• Illusionary Elasticity: I’ll have this looked at again.
• Illusionary Warden: We made some changes for Illusionary Warden for 4/15. Can you guys elaborate on how its behaving now?
• Illusionary Counter issues with MS/IC: These issues are still open in our tracker and did not make it into this release.

That’s all for now. Feel free to respond with any additional issues you guys discover post-patch.

Thanks!

Hey Grouch, any follow up on these, specifically the iWarden, Illusionary Elasticity and Triumphant Distortion reports?

Fun while it lasted! We should thank them for that brief period of fun.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

OK, in jihm’s defense it is nigh impossible for a guardian to beat a competent mesmer, no matter what the mesmer build.

… Seriously. I’ve never been beaten 1v1 versus a Guardian unless I started losing interest.

Nah, I’ve seen it enough times. Ask Warlord – and you know how good he is – about his duels with Arken. They trade blows most of the time. Watching Arken fight good mesmers is school in and of itself. His awareness and instincts are really, really good. I suggest you duel him for a hefty challenge.

That said, if he sees a PU mesmer, like many good players he does not engage alone. This isn’t because the fight isn’t winnable, it’s because he doesn’t want to be hung up in a match for minutes at at time. In most cases, it just isn’t worth the time it takes to kill them.

I will say I commend you for running as it guarantees the PU mesmer won’t win. Many good players do this. It’s not a bad tactic, in all seriousness.

As for L2P against mesmers as a guardian, I strongly suggest you watch Arken’s twitch stream. He seems to duel often and against mesmers (really good ones, too), and has decent success.
http://www.twitch.tv/bigheart_gamer/

Other than that, have fun with tera.

QQ > learn to play?

Mystogan.4157:

Or is this a bug waiting to b fixed

Yes, been reported, we should see a fix for this rather soon I would imagine.

Marsares.2053:

Why would I quit? I see that some builds got hit a bit, but if you want to play lockdown then times are better than they’ve ever been. I’m having a blast on my sword/sword + staff 6/2/6/0/0 Lockdown mesmer.

Powerlock + Chaotic Interruption + Bountiful Interruption + Halting Strike = king.

Yeah this is one I wanted to give a go in pre-patch theory-crafting. Will get there, need a couple more days off work …

I’m messing with a 0/0/6/2/6 (similar to Krispera) GS/Staff build using Bountiful Disillusionment/IP and BI.

This is a very interesting playstyle. There’s a couple different ways it can be played.

1. All-in boon share. You don’t really need DE if you’re trying to play this way.
2. More shatter focused w/DE. You can go x/4/6/x/x and passively get the boons as you play the shatter style.

I’ve personally noticed when taking DE (not running IP), while your damage is obviously better, the boons aren’t terribly impressive. It’s when you add IP (and thus shattered strength) that you really see the boon stacking potential.

A few comments on 0/0/6/2/6 (I was playing zerker):

• You can get the boons with a zero clone shatter or 3 clone shatter.
• Perma-retaliation from both mind wrack and confusing cry.
• Decent team vigor uptime with vigorous revelation.
• Daze shatter – fury bonus = really nice. You get fury, interrupt=more might from BI, etc. Chain it!
• With strength sigils, hoelbrak runes, GS#2 and Staff AA, you maintain a lot of long lasting perma-might.
• Mirror Images is a must if you’re playing without DE and anything close to moderate shatter. It works really well with this.
• Even without spending a point in domination or dueling, it has deceptively strong damage due to the immense amounts of might you maintain.
• Can easily switch to a more selfish build by going 2/x/6/x/6 for mental torment and precise wrack.

I was playing zerker but could maybe see something more tanky around the retal. I’ve also thought about possible condi specs due to the might. Will have to think on those a bit more.

I’m still getting the feel for this and far from ready to sanction it as a solid build or anything, but it’s been a lot of fun so far.

Thedenofsin.7340:

How many stacks of torment per illusion shattered?

1 per illusion, AoE

Most common seem to be x/4/4/x/6, but the only requirement is x/4/x/x/6. The rest of the points can be spent in domination, chaos or inspiration. Most common weapons are sc/p and staff

Grouch – thanks for the response. Regarding iWarden, it seems the pre-patch behavior of it spawning and standing there not attacking is still occuring with seemingly the same consistency. In addition, the reflect capability of iWarden when warden’s feedback is traited seems to be impaired, see this thread post:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Patch-Summary/first#post3903534

Triumphant Distortion has a 10s ICD, but was communicated by Anet in a pre-patch ready-up episode that the trait would not have an ICD (documented by dulfy):
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/All-40-new-GM-traits-for-feature-patch/first

Lishtenbird.2814:

19, 20. Illusionists Celerity and Malicious Sorcery traits. (info as of 4 March 2014)

• If only MS taken: Illusionary Counter CD when triggered is 10s (bug).
• If only IC taken: Illusionary Counter CD when triggered is 9s (bug).
• If both MS and IC taken: Illusionary Counter CD when triggered is 9s (bug); Illusionary Counter tootip says 8s (bug); for the sword block, the tooltip is bugged, but all the cooldowns are proper.
• All other skill-trait combos are fixed.

Confirming none of this has changed as a result of the 4/15 patch.

More importantly, the iWarden needs to be fixed.

It was promised in the blog post this issue would be fixed:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/runes-sigils-and-balance-updates/

Mesmer
In the April 2014 Feature Pack, we’re focusing on giving the mesmer a few more options for applied conditions and support/survivability. Clones and phantasms will receive some updates and bug fixes, including the repair of the Illusionary Warden. Along with a few other bug fixes, the mesmer will benefit greatly from the changes to sigils, especially now that they can equip two sigils to their greatsword or staff. We’re also quite excited about a few new mesmer traits that are becoming available, such as Maim the Disillusioned, which has a great name.

When can we expect a fix?

Pyroathiest.4168:

BlackDevil.9268:

Oh haha forgot something: the portal ’’idicator’’ is only a description of the max range which was already known, 5000 yards. There is still no indicator when it hits max range. How hard is it anet… really?!

HAAAaaaaaa…………..

Skcamow keeps telling me I should stop being so pessimistic. I keep telling him I’m pessimistic for a reason. This. This sort of thing is the reason.

I have no comeback for this. /facepalm

Yeah this is old news now, but the age old clone on death builds are safe from the patch today. Clones will be allowed to be created if 3 are already out, and the on death traits will proc.

StickerHappy.8052:

Can someone confirm this to me. I already asked pyro this before but here goes. The wiki says iMage is affected by the trait.

And it does but only the retal part bounces. But i was doing pvp yesterday and got hit by a single mage for 6 stacks on one attack.

It was an isolated situation so i was thinking it was a bug? Or does the bug fix also fixes this too?

I extensively tested the iMage awhile back with IE. The extra bounce depends on your proximity mainly. I’ve found that if you’re far enough away, the bounces will go between opposing foes. If you’re near enough they will come back to you. It’s honestly not an exact science but I was able to glean some form of consistency from it. Again this was some time ago but I imagine it still works the same.

Renny.6571:

skcamow.3527:

If your primary sources of cc are stuns like magic bullet and signet of domination, CI is definitely not worth taking. The stun overwrites the immobilize.

Your best CI proc’ers are daze and pushes/pulls. To that end, the best builds using CI are able to dish out decent amounts of those; decent being at least three interrupt sources, including diversion. Most builds go with a fourth source in mantra of distraction.

Meh. If they pop a stun break for Magic Bullet/Sig of Dom, they’ll still be immobed.

It comes down to personal preference and what you’re after.

Bottom line for me is the trait is expensive enough that I think you can get the most out of it by using non-stun skills, especially since many are AoE. Stun skills aren’t with the small exception of MB daze on bounce #2.

If your primary sources of cc are stuns like magic bullet and signet of domination, CI is definitely not worth taking. The stun overwrites the immobilize.

Your best CI proc’ers are daze and pushes/pulls. To that end, the best builds using CI are able to dish out decent amounts of those; decent being at least three interrupt sources, including diversion. Most builds go with a fourth source in mantra of distraction.

Ravik.1746:

How did you blink up the hill at 3:10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4Iz8XI_Jg4&t=3m10s

It seems like a lot of Mesmer skills have unnecessary issues with terrain like blink and illusionary leap.

In this case Osi used the common sword #3 illusionary leap on top of the hill, fell down the hill then used #3 swap to blink back. It’s a great skill to really mess with people and excellent to manage positioning. The tendency for many mesmers is to use ileap/swap offensively but using defensively in this way is just as important.

The power in this trait is it’s ability to constantly immobilize on every interrupt, with no internal recharge. This encompasses dazes, stuns, pushes and pulls, all of which can interrupt an opponent, and mesmer has a slew of these.

It’s a very worthy GM trait and already gets complained about as it is.

I won’t deny the faults you mentioned though. Having those other soft cc’s going on in the midst of the immobilize is a bit odd. Chill and blind can definitely still be advantageous, but cripple is just absurd.

Invites sent. Welcome all!

Many smiles, good job! Pretty brave playing with no UI

Chaos Archangel.5071:

A) Cuz my computer is rather crappy. =P I had supcutie watch me duel Zoose for the lockdown vid I wanted to push out but… he wasn’t recording! (Nailed some fantastic interrupts too. /sigh)

I saw that one live on Zoose’s stream. Maybe Zoose still has the recording tucked away somewhere =P

Chaos Archangel.5071:

B) I play this game more inebriated than not. Especially on weekends. x_x

I’ve found you can gauge this by the number of “that’s what she said” remarks.

I posted one as well a couple weeks ago, only to get stronger post-patch (not using new trait): Chaotic Perdition

No mobility issues there

But overall I think the general consensus is that you really need DE to make using the new trait truly shine. I’m sure folks will experiment without it though, and will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

skcamow.3527:

You’re not going to want on-death traits when you’re planning to shatter to apply your damage (torment in this case). I would honestly go something like 0/20/0/20/30 using DE and see if it works. Going 20 into dueling is going to net you a decent amount more damage output since you also get sharper images for your staff/scepter clones in between shatters.

Now that you’ve wisely chosen to take DE in the build –

Just a reminder you’ll do best to gear with rabid versus dire so you can get something out of sharper images (I try to get around 40% crit chance). As for the dueling minor, I agree long range blink makes the most sense.

Another nice thing is that a simple switch from torch to pistol enables you to trait phantasmal fury. That setup would boost your damage quite a bit by stacking bleeds w/duelist. You have the option to do that if you wish, if playing pistol vs torch gives you an advantage vs some opponents. You can do it pretty much on the fly just before you enter a fight.

I think a spec built around maimed could potentially work with:
20/20/0/0/30 (torch traited or shattered concentration in PvP)
0/0/20/20/30 (manipulations and staff traited)
The spec we’re talking about here.

Pre-req is DE and you build from there. I’m sure we’ll be seeing other experimentation along these lines.

A final comment – for those who were wondering like me (because I never assume anything anymore where Anet is concerned), maimed is AoE on shatter like confusion shatter. Yeah pyro you were right, ha!

I was able to confirm with Grouch the other night – he got in game and validated it in their test bed.

You’re not going to want on-death traits when you’re planning to shatter to apply your damage (torment in this case). I would honestly go something like 0/20/0/20/30 using DE and see if it works. Going 20 into dueling is going to net you a decent amount more damage output since you also get sharper images for your staff/scepter clones in between shatters.