Guild Wars 2

@bobross, right – wondering if DE plus one utility provides enough benefit for the clone on death traits to free up a utility slot for condition management.

And on hijacking the thread, no apology necessary. In fact, I’m glad for the discussion, as I noted in my OP that I could see this build in a viable condition damage focus. I have an idea or two on that myself and may play around with it and the other ideas posted here, but I wanted to personally go the power route first.

Check out this link:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/SUPPORT-Mesmer-Spotlight

My personal favorite is my paladin build (in my signature), but there are many great builds to chose from there.

@Keenlam – yeah I’m wondering who is effectively using Furious Interruption with on-demand interrupts in order to take advantage of the quickness. That’s really where I see it able to reach it’s full potential, but requires a rather high skill floor. I’m sure it has some very specific uses but it seems not many are using it, even builds utilizing interrupts. Are you still playing with it or have you moved onto something else?

To further some of the points bobross was making – first, Chaotic Interruption is really the focus of the build/thread, but the hydromancy sigils do play a big role. They are very important to the build. Sure you can get away with using something else but you do lose out in melee range. Also, I’m unsure why you took decoy and MI, as I don’t see that much shattering in your build and even more since you don’t have IC to lower those cool downs. You could maybe swap one of those for either arcane thievery, the iDisenchanter or Mantra of Resolve for condition removal.

Regarding power versus condi damage, hybrid builds are definitely do-able, and the celestial gear makes those much stronger now, but you have to be careful to build in accordance with the traits. In the case of this build, it can successfully go power focused, condition focused, or in a power/condition hybrid. Power works very well and granted I’ve only tried it in sPvP. If you look at the WvW build in the OP though, it’s very power focused and should have no problem bringing down opponents there.

On the other hand, Chaotic Interruption works great in a condition focused build, especially since the conditions it inflicts can take advantage of the typical condition duration buffs. Then you can utilize other runes of your choice (melandru might be good in this case) besides those that extend chill duration specifically.

That said, chill should also not be pigeon-holed for just condition damage builds for the simple reason that it’s a control effect. Sure it’s a condition and is affected by condi-duration buffs, but like immobilize and daze, chill shines beautifully in a power build. Take your common shatter build for example where you are likely iLeap/immobilizing with regularity. Chill in a power build just adds to that concept. Not only does it slow their movement immensely, it increases their skill cool downs while applied and the hydromancy sigil causes damage (can crit as well). This, coupled with the immobilize provided by CI can be extremely disruptive and, well … Chaotic, ha.

It’s great seeing the success others have reported in a condi-damage build but am curious to see others using it in a pure power focus. I haven’t taken the build into WvW yet, but I hope to soon (been on vacation this week), and will hopefully post some videos.

bobross.5034:

I just tried doing this with 10/30/30/0/0, chill sigils and grenth runes, with a celestial amulet in pvp with my guildies. Sort of a hybrid condition/power build using staff and sword/pistol. Seemed to work well. One of the guildies, a d/d ele was complaining a lot about it…so I think it was pretty solid. All the immobilizes make the iDuelist much stronger, and I think the fact that this version stacks on lots of moderate damage conditions, while still hitting fairly hard is confusing to opponents.

Nice, I assume you were using Furious Interruption? Curious how that worked for you – if you felt like it was wasted or able to take advantage of it. I was wondering if someone was going to try this out with a condition damage focus – mentioned that in my OP, but personally never have – staying power based which has worked well. You still have the nice pistol stun/daze which both can proc CI. I’ve also been thinking of maybe trying a 0/10/30/0/30 with Sw/Sw – Staff for a variant.

@Toxic, this is a PvP build I posted recently using Staff and GS. Works really well:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-ChillRuption

Good vid – unfortunately the WvW fps loss made it a little difficult to follow at times, but not too bad. Here are some observations I took from the video and some constructive feedback:

• In your attack chain you’ve laid out in your OP, you say that you typically switch to staff to finish out your boon chain before you pop SoI, but I noticed you rarely switched to staff in the video – wondering why?
• Also in your attack chain you don’t mention using a stealth skill before SoI which struck me as odd considering you’re using PU. Obviously there are some killer boons you would not only acquire, but if you had them already from chaos storm/chaos armor, durations would be significantly buffed. I did notice a couple times where you used Decoy before SoI but it didn’t seem to be the rule.
• It seemed that most of the boons (except a little protection and that glorious might) you shared were coming from the guardians. Not that it’s a bad way to share boons w/allies at all – it’s just that it didn’t seem you were acquiring too many from yourself. Again I’m sure the lack of staff use had a lot to do with that.

These are some of the things I personally would do running a build like this. I’m far from an expert, and maybe I’m missing something in how you were trying to demonstrate it. I Iove the offensive focus of a boon sharing build and I think this one is solid. I’m looking forward to seeing more using that staff :-], since I know this build can really shine in a support capacity.

Samiell.1259:

The build still could use some playing with. It’d be nice to raise the healing to be around 250 per tick. I’ll do some math later and figure out how much healing I need to get there, then try it out again.
Thanks for the ideas so far.

Actually I’ve done that math for the support build in my signature. You need 960 healing power to get 250 per tick. I settled for a little less than that, while maintaining decent damage output. I believe you could do the same, but with your condition damage focus. In your case, going from around 200 to 900 is quite a jump, but I’m sure you can find a good balance between precision and healing power.

Samiell.1259:

I did invest 5pts in the dueling tree for “Critical Infusion; Gain 5 seconds of vigor on delivering a critical hit. This effect can only trigger once every 5 seconds.”

Ah, sorry didn’t catch that 5 pts before. I think you could still strike a good balance of more healing while keeping enough precision to proc vigor every 5 seconds or so.

Samiell.1259:

skcamow.3527:

To the OP, a suggestion would be to try Apothecary gear (or a mix) to get some more healing power into the build, if good phantasmal regeneration is desired. The condition damage focus and toughness is still there, and precision is traded for healing power which in this build shouldn’t be a big deal (no dueling tree for sharper images or vigor proc off crit).

I tried this in some of the Apoth gear I have. Heals were good but the vigor was wanted more by almost everyone. Myself included. Just hard to give up that vigor, ya know?

Hm I don’t think you were following me there. I was saying that it doesn’t seem precision does you much good in this condition/support build because you don’t have any points in the dueling tree where you would get vigor from critical hits (5 pts) and sharper images (15 pts). This is why I suggested going with some apothecary gear mixed.

That aside, with the build you linked, there are currently no ways for you to proc vigor (except a low chance w/SoI). If you wanted to reliably proc vigor to share with your allies, the only easy way to do that would be to swap persisting images for vigorous revelation.

To the OP, a suggestion would be to try Apothecary gear (or a mix) to get some more healing power into the build, if good phantasmal regeneration is desired. The condition damage focus and toughness is still there, and precision is traded for healing power which in this build shouldn’t be a big deal (no dueling tree for sharper images or vigor proc off crit).

Tek.4083:

hey skcamow what server are you on?

Yak’s Bend

chophouse.8056:

Thanks for posting this skcamow, this build looks very interesting. I’ve noticed resistance on this forum to new styles of play other than the shatter and phantasm/tank. It seems some people always need some kind of proof of viability, or have the mindset that there are only 2 or 3 viable builds per class (??).

Since the changes I’ve been trying a few builds around interrupt and will give this one a try for sure.

:)

Yeah there are the popular builds for sure and I play them as much as anyone, but I’m always trying to theorycraft new builds to find good synergy in the traits and utilities. I’d be curious to hear your experience with the build if you do try it out.

bobross.5034:

nice build and concept. There’s some nice synergy between the chills and interrupts…interrupts may prevent condition cleanses, while chills lower cooldowns on skills in general. All in all seems like a fun playstyle.

Yeah it’s extremely disruptive and very fun to play. The interrupts are just the beginning and the trigger into all the madness that ensues. You get the interrupt benefit, preventing whatever they were doing, but then you inflict an automatic immobilize and vulnerability, and if you don’t RNG chill, you inflict cripple or blind. That’s two debilitating conditions inflicted immediately (I don’t count vuln as debilitating), and you can bet they blow at least one, but likely two cleanses if they have them. With the three interrupt sources being AoE, it can get comical.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

This has all been great and the feedback is much appreciated. A few things are still lacking, such as specific dungeon advice but overall its coming along nicely. Moar plz.

If you’re after more dungeon information specific to mesmers, check out Strife’s dungeon guides. They are the best I’ve seen. He runs mesmer occasionally in his guides, but always has a mesmer in his party. There is a lot of talk about navigating dungeons and their mechanics, of which the mesmer often plays a huge role, so you could get a lot of great info from them, or at the very least maybe link to them in your guide.

Tek.4083:

Defcon.8509:

It’s interesting. Especially for ZvZ in WvW.

Switch Imbued Diversion for Illusionary Persona and your diversion is now AE (and the description says “large area”, though I have no idea how large that may be).

Add in some combination of Illusionary Wave, Chaos Storm, Temporal Curtain, Magic Bullet, and a couple of utilities and there is definitely some potential there for significant interrupt based damage.

I’ll have to play with it next time there’s some good ZvZ action going on, but I have a feeling that I’ll still prefer Illuionsary Persona and 20% MW damage in general.

Yknow i even thought of a 10/0/30/0/30 with chaotic interruption and imbued diversion. But i dont think it works very well without the 20 in dueling xD. might be interesting in a ZvZ though

You mean something like this?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-ChillRuption

Works well in PvP, but I haven’t tried it WvW yet. I imagine I will get somewhat similar results.

If it feels more powerful for you, that’s great you’re having fun with it. I personally run a couple builds that take full advantage of RNG interrupts (versus on-demand).

I would just be hesitant to blanket say it does more damage versus the 20% MW trait simply due to the randomness of the many interrupts we can proc (even though I know it happens often), unless you were somehow able to prove that.

EDIT: I will also mention that on the last SOTG, Supcutie was talking about how he played with halting strikes but ended up not using it because it just didn’t feel like it did enough damage (this coming from a PvP perspective). Jon Sharp was receptive and even offered that maybe there is an even higher damage number that would entice Mesmers to take the trait. So, there could be more halting strikes love coming down, we’ll see.

Tek.4083:

Is anyone else feelin this? I got rid of 20% mind wrack damage as it would only really give me maybe 2k extra damage. I run a shatter build and now i have much more sustained damage with diversion. Idk i even call it out in wvw when i use it xD. Im in love!

You said you could sustain more damage with halting strikes using diversion (F4) than MW +20% dmg, when really I think you meant you can sustain more damage with all the various interrupt sources you play with (not just diversion). That is more plausible but even then you’d probably have to run the numbers to compare. Diversion becomes a built-in additional burst, albeit RNG. So you have the potential of doing decent damage with diversion (and any other interrupt source) now, versus pre-patch.

I also like tinkering with interrupt builds, as I posted one here recently:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-ChillRuption

Some feedback on your build -

• I like the Chaotic Interruption choice as I think that’s a highly underrated trait post 6/25 patch.
• I’m not sure how much Bountiful Interruption is helping you since 1) this isn’t a condition damage build and 2) you already have pretty decent power and precision. I would maybe try switching that out for Mirror of Anguish, which is another underrated source of a nice CC I think many overlook (likely due to the insane internal cool down).
• I would drop DE for duelist’s discipline due to your apparent focus to on-demand interrupts (versus AoE like in the build I linked above).
• Another reason to drop DE is that this doesn’t appear to be a shatter build. Not saying shatter builds are the only time you should ever take DE as there are condi-damage builds using clone on death traits where that’s great. But in your DPS build you have debilitating dissipation which doesn’t make much sense. So I would change Dueling master to Duelists Discipline and Chaos adept to either Master of Manipulation or Illusionary Defense. Or another option …
• Due to your on-demand interrupt focus, maybe try going 30 into dueling, taking Furious Interruption in grandmaster. There is discussion on that strategy in the build I linked above. The points would have to come from domination though. In that example, I would go Sw/Sw – Sc/P, something like this:
  http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAra8clwzyoHTzoGb9IipH9GFKckKYalewb5GtB-TkAg0CnIkSJlTKjUSpsSNrA

Going Sw/Sw gives you another access to daze as well, which has better synergy with your expensive 6 slots of runes of the mesmer to make full use of the daze duration. Not sure how much you’re attached to GS but that might be something to play with.

All in all, this is just my 2 cents and I’m glad to see more folks playing with interrupt builds like this. Thanks for sharing!

EDIT: To include the correct Sw/Sw – Sc/P build link I recommended trying.

Thanks for sharing – any reason you don’t shatter more often? A few times I noticed some good burst opportunities which would bring your opponents down much quicker.

jportell.2197:

Okay lets put it this way…. Guaranteed protection from staff #4 gone. HOWEVER in combat overall protection uptime got INCREASED. Protection is the baby of my build and I tested this. Overall protection uptime through fields and staff 4 is UP…. Not a nerf a bug fix. Let us stop whining now.

That’s the spirit. I’ve been wondering how much protection uptime can be obtained without using PU, maybe playing something like Hexxen’s bubble build. I’m might try that out later in PvP with full boon duration runes to see.

Hexxen.7216:

Before the confusion nerf and when Chaos Armor was still in it’s original form I ran a perma Chaos Armor build that rocked really really really hard. This is a step in the right direction to make the most fun build I have ever made viable again. Now they just need to change Blinding Befuddlement and I might try running it again. ^^

Go for it! It’s only a 5 second cool down …
:-)

I’m of the opinion that the nerf outrage is a bit overblown, and yes I play mesmer A LOT. I’ve not yet played myself yet in game, but I’ve heard of a few mesmers playing so far that are fine with the changes and almost considering it a buff due to the fact the blind works as well as protection you can get from ethereal field procs. I guess Osi is one of them:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-WvWvW-Pve-Shatter-Cat-Updated-7-7/page/23#post2379460

Taking into account the whole picture of what was changed, I can see how one could logically argue it was a little buff (though in reality, really a bug fix). Do I hate the RNG of our only way to reliably apply protection? Of course. But it appears Anet was trying to compensate for it as well. Everyone will adapt as usual and we hope from here we don’t get the big bat swung to PU and DE.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

Because it’s a bug fix. It used to not do what it claimed to do. For pvp, I would prefer to blind my attackers 1/3 the time than 0% chance of blind that it used to have. Then protection also now happens 1/3 the time instead of never for all other chaos armors.
My post from a different thread:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_zUWZIyOL4

The bug. I agree that this is a nerf to staff 4 BUT it is a buff to every other chaos armor if it actually works. Blind also used to NEVER work. Now it should work for ALL chaos armors. This means that the confuse on blind trait now works. This is also amazing defense for WvW. Being able to blind multiple foes now is BETTER IN EVERY WAY. Its like multiple aegis’s that stack.

That’s probably the best reasoning I can think of – a bug fix. Honestly have you seen anyone qq’ing about how much protection mesmers have (no not everyone takes PU in their builds)?

In another post I was wondering about protection stacking from all these additional potential procs which were non-existent before. If it does indeed stack and you are spec’d for high boon duration, it could be interesting for protection uptime, without the need to use PU:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Another-patch-another-mesmer-nerf/page/2#post2377757

This would be more in the PvP realm since as a mesmer you’re not going to get hit nearly enough for reliable protection uptime in dungeons and PvE (unless mabye solo-ing). I haven’t been in game to test myself yet but will try to later.

Zumi.6384:

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

I remember someone on the forum saying that blind used to NEVER work on chaos armor. Also, I thought protection was only from the staff 4 and NEVER from leaps/blasts in chaos. I didn’t use them enough to know if this was the case, but if blind/prot now works on all chaos armors, this might be a buff. It is true that chaos armor on staff is now a really weak skill though.

This is a VERY good point, I hadn’t even thought of that.

Before the patch, Staff skill 4 gave guaranteed protection, while the combo Chaos Armor had no method of protection.

Now both offer protection (randomly). Personally I find myself using the combo version much more, so perhaps I might see more protection overall. That said, it still can’t compare to on demand protection, and the Staff skill is now meaningless, but that’s another thing entirely.

Agreed on this, just posted this on another thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/now-it-s-chaos-armor/first#post2377743

It would only be considered “a remote buff” if protection can stack from each proc, and even then, this is all RNG we’re talking about. But with high boon duration specs, I imagine the potential for protection uptime might even be higher than before. We just need to validate the stacking question unless someone knows.

This just to offer a full perspective, but it’s no good that they took away our only source of obtaining on demand protection.

Does anyone know if the RNG protection stacks duration? If it does, that could be interesting. Assuming it does, the way I understand it and assuming the tooltip should give you the appropriate amount of RNG protection on hit, there is actually a chance you could have more protection uptime with this nerf than before.

• Pre-patch: 5 seconds base protection when activating Staff #4. After the first protection proc, protection could not be proc’d again (so 5 seconds was all you got). There was no protection whatsoever when acquiring Chaos Armor via ethereal fields.

• Post-patch: A chance of 10 seconds protection from Staff #4 AND chaos armor proc’d from an ethereal field.

All of it assumes you’re being hit multiple times in an attempt to proc it, but I would venture to guess that side by side (if protection stacks), it’s possible to have more protection on you post-patch than pre-patch. It’s just not on demand which is the killer. Note this doesn’t take into consideration boon duration enhancements which could lessen the blow even further.

moutzaheadin.4029:

DiogoSilva.7089:

Chaos Armor is just getting a similar treatment that the Elementalist’s auras did a few patches ago, with the internal 1s cooldown. I just hope the Retaliation boon gets the same treatment someday.

I’m surprised, however, that they went back to making this skill completely random.

Wrong… They removed protection on activation. Which is the only reason staff 4 was any good. No one used the skill for random on hit procs.

Actually, many ppl do use Chaos Armor to randomly stack conditions especially when they see someone coming at them with a multi-hit attack. I’m pretty sure that is exactly why they introduced the cool down on the conditions this skill applies. It was a piece of cake to inflict multiple confusion stacks (not to mention long durations of blind and cripple) and this was hugely nerfed. So really I see this, at least on the condition side of Chaos Armor, to essentially be a further confusion nerf, which is unnecessary.

Zumi.6384:

Looks very interesting, I like it! And it’s totally unique, which is also neat.

A few thoughts I have while looking through it:

• Have you found that having two utilities dedicated to condi removal to be overkill? On the face it looks like you could replace one of them and still be in pretty good shape. Signet of Dom comes to mind for the extra stun, or maybe MI/Decoy for more Diversion shatter fodder

As I’m fairly new to PvP, I’ve found the extra condi removal is helpful but I think for more experienced players it wouldn’t be necessary. I’ve thought how great it would be to throw on a decoy or MI. Remember though the iDisenchanter, with decreased cool down, helps with shatters. I say that because he would be the one I would likely replace with Decoy or MI.

Zumi.6384:

Have you tried Bountiful Interruptions? Losing 20% CD on staff hurts, but with all your AoE interrupts, you could get tons of might to help both the power and condi damage you’re throwing out

I have tried it and it’s like watching paint dry waiting for those staff cool downs. Not saying it can’t be done, but it’s just more difficult and hurts shatter fodder since phase retreat is probably the best way to create clones in this setup. I’m still stacking some decent might via mirror blade and all shatters. With 30% built-in boon duration, it’s good.

Zumi.6384:

I’d also look into either Compounding Power or Illusionary Invigoration. Although, Invigoration would probably be a better fit (more AoE daze!)

Is most of your damage coming from phantasms or shatters?

To your point, the adept illusion trait is one of the big options in this build. I rarely find myself waiting for enough clones/phantasms to shatter, but due to the inability to produce on demand clones, I’m not sure if Illusionary Invigoration would be too helpful. I will play with it though and see. Damage is from phantasms, shatters, and is decent from weapon attacks/skills (Illusionary Elasticity helps with this, too). I try to use diversion when I get one clone out. I’ll also try to get spacing with the clones and phantasms to try to proc 3 pulses of AoE daze in clogged points, which is the big payoff with the build. So with the phantasms, I try to keep them up as long as possible, but in practice they get at least one hit in, then I need to shatter to keep pressure applied. Once Diversion is off cool down, you only need one cheap clone to proc that AoE daze/interrupt/immobilize/chill. It almost seems overpowered that you can do that much with just one clone shattered.

One thing I’m looking for feedback on is gearing a little different to increase the power focus. I tested one with low armor, high power/decent precision and was doing nice damage but was going down too quickly so I arrived at the gear in the build link (speaking PvP here). In the PvE/WvW build there is plenty of power – even without the interrupts you will be doing nice damage there.

Zumi.6384:

Those are my thoughts, but overall it’s a very well thought out build, nice work!

Thanks, I hope others have as much fun as I have been with it.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

What a … cool build! (Nyuk nyukk)

I like the concept, will def give it a try.

Haha, cool let me know how it works for you, and if you have any ideas on improving the traits or the gear. I can see this build (keeping Chaotic Interruption) with many variations, some Staff – Sw/Sw, maybe Staff – Sw/P even. Also maybe going 30 into domination (versus illusions), taking GS training, etc may be worth playing with, but you have to actually daze for that 50% trait to proc, versus an interrupt which is easier to proc and more plentiful (you have push/pull interrupts – no dazes – then daze itself can of course cause interrupts). It’d also be difficult to give up that AoE diversion and illusions decreased cool downs due to 30 in illusions.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

What do you think of Furious Interruption compared to the Daze = 50% stun trait? And how useful do you think the quickness interrupt is?

You know, I’ve contemplated those other two traits which require 30 points spent. I wasn’t impressed with the furious interruption change, but tbh I have not played with it. I just can’t see that as being nearly as useful as the newly improved Chaotic Interruption, Imbued Diversion or even 50% stun on daze. I posted a thread shortly after the 6/25 patch asking about that trait and a couple ppl responded that they were using it. I see specific situations where it can be useful, but for 30 points? It’s really one of those traits which depends on you knowing when you’re going to interrupt an opponent so as to take advantage of the quickness you’re about to acquire. So in that way I’d say it’d be best reserved for on demand interrupt builds using daze mantra and pistol for example, played by highly skilled players who know every tell on every skill from every profession whilst in frenetic battle. High skill floor there – but it could be beautiful watching someone that skilled using that trait, planning the next move around the quickness, etc.

To the OP, Staff and GS are two of the best Mesmer weapons (IMO) and I recently posted a build using both of them – it’s a lot of fun. Also as someone else said, can’t deny the GS ability to chase down an opponent with low HP and finish them off.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-ChillRuption

Zerker phantasm builds do work well – I’ve used them quite a bit in the past. You want to make sure to also take some utility with you for your team, since the Mesmer is filled with options there. Going at least 25 in inspiration is usually enough. Personally, I’ve transitioned to a support play style of late. The support build in my signature works well in dungeons and does decent damage. There is a video linked there which demonstrates how to execute the boon chain in order to share with allies with SoI – footage is actually from CoF.

GS/Sw-F BUILD
This build makes full use of the push/pull interrupts which are ideal for use with Chaotic Interruption (CI). It also provides valuable projectile reflection with focus skills. You lose the AoE on Diversion but gain quite a bit with these push/pulls. Use them for zerg trolling or clearing opponents off points. Watch the interrupt procs and your foes standing there, immobilized from CI. You get the added benefit of using BI with CI which can stack a lot of might.

Traits/Skills
Trait selection is 20/0/30/20/0.

Gear
Mainly zerker and cavalier. Check build link below.

Playstyle
This build does very well in WvW and PvP. For CI, I’ve found the best way to interrupt is a raw push or pull, in the case of a mesmer especially because they are AoE. We can save AoE daze (GS2 > shatter and chaos storm) for the original Chillruption build. This one does it a bit different and adds a load of utility to it.

Here’s an attack chain to try out.

• Cast Null Field on a group to rip stability, or target one to steal it with arcane thievery.
• Launch the iBerserker for a mass cripple.
• Swap to Sw/F. Throw out your temporal curtain in front of them, allow it to reflect for a couple seconds.
• Launch the iWarden, just as the skill is about to finish the one second channel, destroy the curtain (this takes practice), likely interrupting many opponents right into your iWarden, where the fun continues because they are immobilized from CI while eating the iWarden attack. (Oh, and anyone trying to shoot through the iWarden is getting some nasty reflection).
• The ultimate, do the Sw/F combo above, blink or dodge into them, swap to GS (proc’ing a nice hydromancy spike and long chill). Quickly GS5 to push them back and likely proc AoE interrupts and more CI procs. Mass Invis or blink to escape or throw up feedback for a little more protection. You’ve just completely disabled this poor group for a good 5-10 seconds.

If you can pull all that off you win a troll award.

With glamours traited you are very flexible. You can slot feedback/null field, and yes even Veil and no worries about the Veil bot stigma, you’re still having a blast. You can also take signet of inspiration and share all that might you’re bound to get with your team. Going more of a supportive route, you can trait signet CD’s instead of halting strike and medic’s feedback if you need to.

WvW: http://tinyurl.com/mfxg2aj
PvP: http://tinyurl.com/kooeftq

PvP and WvW builds are updated and current

You want to be a thorn to your opponents? Try some AoE CC lockdown using chaotic interruption (CI) and imbued diversion (ID) together. Chaotic Interruption applies chill, cripple and blind randomly on interrupt. The best part is you also apply a 2 second base immobilize. You inflict these hard CC’s via the following:

• Chaos Storm (CI, Chill) – can proc chill twice! one on interrupt, one on chaos storm
• Chaotic Interruption (CI)
• Diversion (CI)
• Ice rune #4 (Chill)
• Sigil of Hydromancy or Ice (Chill)

Staff/GS BUILD
If Imbued Diversion procs a few opponents (hint: clogged points, zergs), they are immobilized for a couple seconds while you and your team have your way. This can turn the tide of a battle very quickly. Here are some tips to best proc the AoE interrupts:

• Mirror Blade/Phase Retreat Shatter: Launch mirror blade. When you see the clone created on impact, immediately F3 shatter. Try to save this for when more than one opponent is near your target. Keep in mind this works on AI, not just reals! The same can be done with phase retreat the opposite way if you’re in the thick of it.
• Chaos Storm: Just throw it over a group and watch the interrupts.
• Illusionary Wave: Get in close enough for the AoE knock back. You will almost certainly proc at least one interrupt on a group.

Condition removal is handled with mantra of resolve or null field.

Most of this build’s effectiveness is derived from random AoE interrupts. I find that using these interrupts proc plenty enough to be more than useful.

The build can be used in PvP or WvW. In WvW, it can be a temporary zerg stopper. Team utility is nice with AoE chills and cripples constantly proc’ing. In PvP, you play similar to a ranged shatter. Look for opportunities to lauch your mirror blade or phase retreat diversion bomb, then hop to a ledge with your large might stacks and deal damage out of harm’s way. Use GS knockback wisely when foes are balled up. Throw chaos storm on points.

TRAITS/SKILLS
2/x/6/x/6. Halting Strike is strongly recommended and in fact one of the build’s primary damage sources. With frequent 25 might stacks, I commonly see 3-3.5k crits, even in the more tanky spec’d WvW build listed. You can go more or less zerker to your liking. Mantra of Distraction is a must since the AoE buff to power lock. Before the buff I was running signet of inspiration to share the mass quantities of might I always maintained in large fights. This typically isn’t necessary in organized GvG’s due to fire field blasting, but if you’re in a small havoc squad without any guards/eles (like why, right xD), this can be a solid option.

Required

• 6 Chaos: VII (Bountiful Interruption) and XII (Chaotic Interruption)
• 6 Illusions: VII (Illusionary Elasticity) and XII (Imbued Diversion)
  NOTE: Bountiful Interruption arguably provides the best might stacking we have as mesmer. You can get 25 quickly with frequent AoE interrupts. In a team comp, slot signet of inspiration for some nice might sharing support.

Optional

• Chaos adept – Master of Manipulation: I’ve been using this more and more in WvW due to increased movement and the because debilitating dissipation is more or less ineffective in zerg fights with my lower clone generation output.
• Illusions adept – Compounding Power isn’t the greatest due to frequent illusion death but it’s one of the best options here.
• Don’t venture away from the 2 in domination, as without halting strike, your overall damage is reduced considerably.

WvW zerg: http://tinyurl.com/lo4p8gg
PvP: http://tinyurl.com/p847yp8

ARMOR
PvP: Bersker’s amulet.
WvW: Knights/Berserker’s/Cavalier’s.

RUNES/SIGILS
I used to use Ice or Lyssa, and they’re still decent, but I found my damage suffers. I’ve switched to Runes of the Pack.

PvP: Pack runes deal better damage overall with the nice stats + nice fury and swiftness uptime. Sigils – I now use improved sigils of ice due to the enhanced on-hit nature of them. They proc very often. I couple those with battle.
WvW: Pack runes fit very nicely with the build. Sigils – I use battle and fire for more AoE damage/tags.

NOURISHMENTS
Whatever your liking honestly. Some options include:

• Koi Cake: If you want to focus the build more on extending conditions as a whole.
• Bowl of Curry Pumpkin Soup: If you want more precision/vitality. The extra condition duration from Koi Cakes can at times be lost in zerg fights. This is what I currently run.
• Ghost Pepper Popper: An interesting choice to spread more chill at night and stack might during the day.
• Lemongrass Poultry Soup: Solid in WvW to help better manage conditions.

Pyroatheist.9031:

skcamow.3527:

Pyroatheist.9031:

• When using the trait Duelist’s Discipline, the iDuelist acquires 100% combo finisher for each of its 8 shots

Is this a bug or does the trait need an updated description?

Good question.

Hate to advertise it as a bug when it may not be. Can you remove it until we get some confirmation down the road? I know in one of the recent SOTG episodes Anet said they were intent on updating trait descriptions to more accurately describe what they do. Maybe (hopefully) this is intended.

Pyroatheist.9031:

• When using the trait Duelist’s Discipline, the iDuelist acquires 100% combo finisher for each of its 8 shots

Is this a bug or does the trait need an updated description?

Pyroatheist.9031:

skcamow.3527:

Pyroatheist.9031:

skcamow.3527:

Pyroatheist.9031:

skcamow.3527:

skcamow.3527:

Last I checked, Illusionary Elasticity worked on the iMage. Granted that was before the 6/25/2013 patch. Haven’t tested after that. Is it broke again?

I tested Illusionary Elasticity on the iMage and iDisenchanter today in PvE. iMage works as expected. Untraited, it bounces twice (hitting 3 targets). Traited, it bounces 3 times (hitting 4 targets).

The iDisenchanter attacks bounce three times traited and untraited.

The disenchanter attacks actually hit a maximum of 5 targets, both traited and untraited. I’ve tested that extremely extensively.

Yeah tbh I noticed a lot of inconsistency with iDisenchanter, even with 2 clones out and 2 opponents, it seemed to 99% of the time bounce 3 times (hitting four targets). I think one time in my 30 minutes of testing did I see it bounce 4 times, hitting 5 targets. Also I’m not sure what’s up with his logic as he appears to favor tagging opponents in one sequence, then seems to randomly shift to allies. Have you experienced better consistency?

The logic is odd. It definitely likes to bounce to me, but it also will tend to bounce along allies or along enemies. It seems to like to stick to one type of targets, taking a detour to tag me when it gets close.

How about the 5 target scenario – have you noticed more consistency than I described or is it pretty random in your experience?

In my testing, if there were 5 valid targets in range, it hit them all every time.

Ok, guess I’ll have to play around with it a bit more to see if I can get more consistent results.

Pyroatheist.9031:

skcamow.3527:

Pyroatheist.9031:

skcamow.3527:

skcamow.3527:

Last I checked, Illusionary Elasticity worked on the iMage. Granted that was before the 6/25/2013 patch. Haven’t tested after that. Is it broke again?

I tested Illusionary Elasticity on the iMage and iDisenchanter today in PvE. iMage works as expected. Untraited, it bounces twice (hitting 3 targets). Traited, it bounces 3 times (hitting 4 targets).

The iDisenchanter attacks bounce three times traited and untraited.

The disenchanter attacks actually hit a maximum of 5 targets, both traited and untraited. I’ve tested that extremely extensively.

Yeah tbh I noticed a lot of inconsistency with iDisenchanter, even with 2 clones out and 2 opponents, it seemed to 99% of the time bounce 3 times (hitting four targets). I think one time in my 30 minutes of testing did I see it bounce 4 times, hitting 5 targets. Also I’m not sure what’s up with his logic as he appears to favor tagging opponents in one sequence, then seems to randomly shift to allies. Have you experienced better consistency?

The logic is odd. It definitely likes to bounce to me, but it also will tend to bounce along allies or along enemies. It seems to like to stick to one type of targets, taking a detour to tag me when it gets close.

How about the 5 target scenario – have you noticed more consistency than I described or is it pretty random in your experience?

Pyroatheist.9031:

skcamow.3527:

skcamow.3527:

Last I checked, Illusionary Elasticity worked on the iMage. Granted that was before the 6/25/2013 patch. Haven’t tested after that. Is it broke again?

I tested Illusionary Elasticity on the iMage and iDisenchanter today in PvE. iMage works as expected. Untraited, it bounces twice (hitting 3 targets). Traited, it bounces 3 times (hitting 4 targets).

The iDisenchanter attacks bounce three times traited and untraited.

The disenchanter attacks actually hit a maximum of 5 targets, both traited and untraited. I’ve tested that extremely extensively.

Maximum of 5 I guess is the correct phrasing, but yeah tbh I noticed a lot of inconsistency with iDisenchanter, even with 2 clones out and 2 opponents, it seemed to 99% of the time bounce 3 times (hitting four targets). I think one time in my 30 minutes of testing did I see it bounce 4 times, hitting 5 targets. Also I’m not sure what’s up with his logic as he appears to favor tagging opponents in one sequence, then seems to randomly shift to allies. Have you experienced better consistency?

skcamow.3527:

Last I checked, Illusionary Elasticity worked on the iMage. Granted that was before the 6/25/2013 patch. Haven’t tested after that. Is it broke again?

I tested Illusionary Elasticity on the iMage and iDisenchanter today in PvE. iMage works as expected. Untraited, it bounces twice (hitting 3 targets). Traited, it bounces 3 times (hitting 4 targets).

The iDisenchanter attacks bounce three times traited and untraited.

naphack.9346:

skcamow.3527:

To catch the thief on the other side. After crossing, poor mesmer finds that thief had crossed back and traffic was then too heavy to catch him.

should have dropped a portal before crossing.

Probably wouldn’t have mattered.

Iavra.8510:

He had to find a shortcut since his friends are way faster than he is.

To catch the thief on the other side. After crossing, poor mesmer finds that thief had crossed back and traffic was then too heavy to catch him.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Hey,
Unfortunately your Phantasms will never be a reliable source of Regeneration in a zerg situation. Since you have Runes of Dwayna, you are the prime source of regen (Esecially if you’re using Chocolate Omnomberry Creams, which would have your regen duration at 70%) spreading regen. Mantra of Recovery is a huge help for this.

Ranged Phantasms like Warlock are your best bet, but even then you should be trying to grab the Regen from them yourself to add to your own duration of regeneration for when you pop Signet of Inspiration.

I need to test how much longer the extra 450 toughness (from Protected Mantras-Dueling VI- and Chaotic Dampening) keep Phantasms alive in Cleric’s gear.

Yeah, they aren’t a reliable source – good way to put it, but they are still an effective source with proper positioning and practice. Getting a nice amount of regen on yourself to share is one of the best ways, to your point. Taking persisting images becomes that much more important, as well as using the iDefender in these cases. I like the mantra toughness idea.

Being that you recommend dwayna runes in WvW, it almost makes sense to have two sets of gear. One with altruism runes for dungeons and other specific WvW uses, and one set with dwayna runes for zerging.

I give some WvW phantasm pointers in the paladin build in my signature. Essentially you need to keep them in the mid to back line and always try to get them behind your temporal curtain or warden. Sometimes it’s difficult when you’re trying to target enemies flying all over the place, but it will come with some practice.

First video added up top showing the boon chain and dungeon/PvE play. WvW and PvP (hopefully) videos coming soon.

Last I checked, Illusionary Elasticity worked on the iMage. Granted that was before the 6/25/2013 patch. Haven’t tested after that. Is it broke again?

Listened to both segments and as always there is great insight by everyone. Loved the discussion on builds/traits especially. I like that the various opinions and disagreements are openly discussed. I take Kylia’s stance on the viability of the interrupt traits for the paladin build I run. Many of the other support builds that have been posted in the past week since the new patch seem to it as enjoy well. In my experience, they can indeed be used to great effect to supplement a boon support build.

This also works with sigils of speed. Here are some options:

• You can have a MH or OH equipped with a sigil of speed and get 10s base swiftness per kill (100% chance versus 60%). When you have the swiftness you want you can switch to your main weapon. This way you can use the food you want, and the sigil of speed (superior variant) is a one time, currently 3 silver purchase.
• You can stack double swiftness per kill by using the food and a sigil of speed (assuming the 60% from the food procs).

I’ve tried using sigils of speed on both MH/OH and they do not stack.
None of these are ideal of course, but options to consider for swiftness when WvW roaming.

vinceftw.5086:

Not that Seven Mirror isn’t great but he uses a very different style. VERY different.

Agreed, play style is extremely different – I was more referring to the tactics they use, which are very similar. I think Vash is much more aggressive; seven was the master of troll.

I’m learning a lot watching your videos – you’re like a seven mirror spawn (I say that in the most complimentary way). Your game tactics remind me a lot of his. A suggestion – can you create a single thread with all your videos so you can update it when you release new content?

CrAzY.3275:

skcamow.3527:

CrAzY.3275:

Yeah ill definitely admit I have plenty to learn about mesmers. As far as being op or any nerfs just a joke!

Were you being sarcastic or just backing down now …

Just joking but if you would like me to spell it out for you I might be able to, kitten some people are so defensive about their class

If you make it difficult to tell if you’re serious about your OP title, you’re going to have to expect some defensive responses given the recent nerfs to phantasm builds.
That said, I’m glad to hear you’re not saying phantasms are overpowered.

CrAzY.3275:

Yeah ill definitely admit I have plenty to learn about mesmers. As far as being op or any nerfs just a joke!

Were you being sarcastic or just backing down now …

I am close to officially replacing the iDefender with the iDisenchanter on the build I’m running for the following reasons:

• With the increase in HP and SoI working properly and the 20% HP trait, it has respectable health.
• The amazing party utility it brings.
• The lower cool down versus the iDefender, especially in mind due to the IC nerf.
• Most importantly, the retaliation nerf which crippled iDefender tremendously.

It’s pretty much a clear choice (if you were using iDefender pre-patch)