Guild Wars 2

holyDEMON.5189:

Thanks its pretty awesome. I adjusted Amadeus.5687 Chrono Bruiser build into this for sPvP and am having a blast just constant blocking and shattering for big damage, or if I can get away with it sitting in the back with greatsword smashing even more face
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseRnsIC1filpBeoBMrhFVj68JWiojMAGhdquZj2qF-TZBFABiXGggDBQN7PswJAAgjAAA

that is actually my latest thought.
Since keep blocking all day long won’t kill anythin and unless you are a tank than it won’t benefit you,, I thought why not having 2 zerkers and shatter them? Will this get you 2 zerkers out at the same time if CP is traited?

Can someone test this for me?

Amadeus.5687:

trooper.2650:

I noticed that too. But it is strange two different users have same name, that is why I thought it is the same person with different accounts.

I always liked xiao videos and I truly think he is good. However, I won’t follow him on youtube anylonger and will not watch his videos anymore because the way he replied in the MB thread.

Disappointing to say the least

that’s good to know ^^
If you click the account name you can see which posts they have made on the forums, and see that they are indeed not the same person! So you can keep supporting this one on youtube, since his not the same guy!

Also very nice video Tsuki Yomi! Super late to see it haha! But I enjoyed it!

Ross Biddle.2367:

You have to understand, Xiao wants you to trawl through his youtube channel via his vid so he can get views etc. To find the “banner” you have to spend some time figuring out where the hell youtube puts that particular feature and how you get there.

So in the interest of time, since I did this perilous task once upon a time, I went an dragged it out for yall.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseRl0nhy0YjawGNwtGLCH1ZGsBhmZBUKBQ9m+pnKA-T1CEABQcCAi4BAky+DEcEASU9ntUCawhAgJlfdohpN9BAcgACAgAcz2sNvZglrclrclrcu5Nv5QH6QLFgYbBA-w

Here’s a link to where the link lives
https://www.youtube.com/user/Atori4F/about

that deserved a +1

Mak.2657:

Idk, but:
Mirror blade – xiao.2614 (should be banned from forum imo)
This one – xiao.6794

I noticed that too. But it is strange two different users have same name, that is why I thought it is the same person with different accounts.

I always liked xiao videos and I truly think he is good. However, I won’t follow him on youtube anylonger and will not watch his videos anymore because the way he replied in the MB thread.

Disappointing to say the least

Wells are a pain to cast with high ping. You may want to focus on quicknes to help you with that (seize the moment).
Alternativeky, I think a heavy class could be much more forgiving

Is xiao the same one that opened a 3D on Mirror Blade?

I see you guys ended up going down the same route I did and finded out not worth it.

Every time I play a tanky power build I always think how nice it would be if I could twist it in to a hybrid one. But then it all fall apart because of the trade off

My experience is that the well doesn’t do enough damage. Pvp is different from wvw and my feedback is purely from pvp perspective.

The build works well but either you roam in wvw or have a coordinated group in pvp. As a solo pvp player I decided I want to be the master of myself. No matter how tanky you are, a team focus firing you will bring you down if not supported by competent players so I went back and dusted off a phant shatter build.

If you manage to come up with this build optimized for solo pvp then please give me a shout

Amadeus.5687:

I could imange such high degree of allmost instant burst will break the build, in spcial when it rely on active defence to outlast bursts! Kinda the same issue it can have vs burst Thief/mesmer from stealth, where you don’t have the possiblity to react on the stealth burst!
But it’s a succes at my end, if my post inspired you to make a build you are satisfied and happy with, that were the important part about all this!

Burst mesmers with MoD and CS can be a problem, but they are glassy too, and the build excels in putting constant pressure so they retreat quickly. Same with thieves.

Now that I think of, Reapers are more of a threat, especially since they have unblockable skills. You go “all blocking” to win some time for the heal to get off cd and they just kitten you right through your shield

Amadeus.5687:

@ Trooper it’s interesting to get feedback from the sPvP side and glad to hear that you guys are having a lot of fun with it, just with some minor twearks! I were thinking Berzeker probaly would be a must, if you wanted to be able to burst the enemeis somewhat! On the other hand my (limited) experince in sPvP is people do tend to run more glassy builds there, compared to WvW. Are you killing people fast enough? how do you feel the build work in team fights?

That is the main issue I faced.
I do not know if it is a l2p thing from my side or their side, but I was able to use berserker to a good degree of success. But the low HP was a problem when facing DHs and their traps. I was able to win most of 1vs1 except fews vs DHs.
In team fights, the build turned out to be a good mix of support and damage/cc.

Overall I am satisfied and happy
Not sure on the amulet though. I guess a better player could always use berserker. Maybe traps should be nerferd a little… dunno really. Waiting for curunen to share his experience

Curunen.8729:

I’m trying this out in pvp:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseWnsnBlphtfCOqBcrhFij6cDugOzMASgFq+S70QF-TJxHABXXGIgnAw67PAwpAAA

It’s hard to find a substitute rune for Defender but I’m starting to become addicted to the resistance on heal from the revenant runes.

Works better than I was expecting, so thanks again.

hahaha, so peculiar… I literally tried the same
I liked your idea with revenant runes!

My changes are

• sigils: 2xHydro 2xAir or 2xHydro 2xLeeching, but energy can also work ofc
• medic’s feedback instead of persisting images
• times catches up instead of delayed reactions, which I frankly do not understand in this build, but I guess it’s just down to personal taste

My experience was: just great.
What I didn’t like is that with Marauder you are on a safe side but lacking the punch Amadeus achieved in his videos. With berserker, I can get closer to that “punch” but basically it’s like running a glass build, although the active defenses help a lot. However, I sometimes got one-shot by guardians with bow+trap combo when going reckless to contest a point, something never happened when using Marauder.

Overall I think the build is very effective. Thank you

@dondagora
I thought so, but even then (starting with quickness), sometimes it does not work. Which leads me to…

@fay
You are right. The whole stomp mechanism is not working properly right now.

Sad, I really liked StM, but the stomp bug makes it not reliable for stomping, even after the recent boost (boon on self-shatter). I guess I’ll have to wait for better time and switch to the safer CP for now

Hi guys,

I dunno if it’s a l2p issue, lag or a mechanic flaw… but when I go for the stomp with quicknes on me, the animation looks faster, my char lands on his knees and so I think I completed to stomp and move away, but often the finisher doesn’t trigger, which means the enemy is not dead. I often have to repeat the stomp with all the issues related (team mate comes in for ress, etc)

Is it only me?

How does stomp + quicknes work?

• Can I start stomping and shatter (StM) midway to get quicknes?
• Or do I have to start the stomp with quicknes already on?
• What if quicknes expires before the stomp is accomplished?

Please, enlighten me

I like it

What amulet and runes would you go with in spvp?

edit. I compared the stats in your link and the stats I could achieve with the amulets available in pvp right now. It seems that marauder is the closer bet, although we are still far away, especially because no toughness (but mitigated by a bigger health pool) and much less attack power (but more crit chance).

I could live with that. The problem is the runes which cannot be replaced. I see someone already pointed at vampirism, but I do not like them either. What else could work in this setup, to help achieve more sustain?

I think the problem is that we are pigeon holed to choose dueling for DE.
It’s an old debate but still very actual. We now have so many traits that rely not only on shatters but on how many illusions you shatter and if you cannot produce enough, those traits become subpar or not worth considering. Some may argue and say they can do without, that they are not dependant on DE. The truth is that any mesmer with DE is a better mesmer. The same could be said before IP was given baseline and I think that DE is such an important talent that could turn an average build into a good one, or at least in to a viable one.

Inspiration is a good treet, I like it, but because of the bad scaling of healing with the mesmer profession then is often left as last choice

I seem to get the best results with duel/chaos/chrono than chaos/insp/chrono. This means dropping a glam, feedback most likely. No point in running with two and no trait for it

I have to say I really like all the quickness I can pump out. It helps in so many things. Also the new sigil with quickness and swiftness on swap are great. I wish anet could have added it before HoT. I think mesmers would have benefited soo much

We are looking at two different things. While all you say is fine, my goal is different.

I have 3 wells and 2 glamours. When focused/fired on mid (and with no stability), I some times find difficult to cast those utilities/elite because of the casting time. My build is aiming at making easier to cast such skills by abusing quickness, which I have plenty from different sources: Chrono runes, sigil on swap, StM, Shield 5. Quickness also helps with ressing (I already have ressing trait), stomping and last dps.

Having two glam, and not taking Temporal Enchanter is a crime, so Inspiration is a must. Having 3 wells and not taking all is related to wells, it is a crime too. But casting them with lag, when being focused etc, and dying because the heal didn’t come off, or failing a ress because the elite didn’t cast is frustrating as hell. Hence, I need quickness. A lot. And I think I achieved it with an intersting build.

I was now only deciding whether blinds help more vs stability. Now I also have blind vs stability vs blocks… thank you sir

Mmh…. interesting.
I did use it in my phant/condition build and surely was impressive. I did not think of it in terms of a tank PoW, which would be more inherent than to a condi spec, tbh.

So, you say that such increadible blocking capability can reliabily replace a tree like chaos. That means sitting in sw/shield for most of the time, which could be fine, being a tank.

However, can you conferm quickness affecting the duration of any channeling skill? In which case, my goal of stacking quickness would work against, for it would shorten the channel length. Mmh… I just started experimenting with StM and I really like all the fast action I can achieve, especially when casting glamours and wells. I am not sure I want to go that route… Also, spending 1/2 of the time blocking isn’t so appealing. Tanking is fine, doing little damage can be accepted. Not doing damage at all is different though.

I will have to try it, but I still think that BD could suits the idea I have in mind better.

Thank you. Point taken.

In reality, I knew the answer but pretended that blind is as good (for a tank).
Going dueling for blind, I could grab DE, which although it can be replaced by several traits, I say it is still the best clone-creation trait we have, unfortunately.

And that would have helped me with StM, since I am trying to fit it in the build. Reason? I am running with 3 wells and 2 glamours and I hate the casting time. Quickness helps so much with it.

Furthemore, as a power tank with Sentinel amulet, damage from staff and shield phantasms is almost negligible amd thus CP almost worthless, except for the extra illusion fodder. In my case, the best GM trait as a chrono would be StM.

Hence, I tried to build around it by taking Chrono runes and quickness on swap sigil. This way I now have so much quickenss flying around which is crazy and almost convinced me I could coin a build: fast & furious

However, by not picking DE will limit my clone creation and not sure StM will be as effective. I will try taking IR instead of IA in the master tier to compensate and see how it goes.

The website is not updated, yet the fast & furious build looks like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8OncfClqBuqBEgilej6cDKhQwMAugMqeUX1XF-TpAIABOXGAgnAAA

The blank utility goes for your preferred well.
Blank sigil is for quickness on swap
Blank runes is for either Chrono runes or the new Toughness with 6th bonus + 150HP which gives you almost 30k (!!!) HP total. Not to be overlooked

Sorry for the rant

Thoughts?

Right, maybe I should explain where this question comes from.
I started from the tank build advertised by Pyro and tried my own variation. Atm I am running chrono/insp/duel, because I feel blind helps so much vs melee. But as point holder you do not want to be cced too much, hence the question on stability.

You say I should go illusions, but besides shorter cd on shatter, which isn’t a big deal with all that alacrity going on, and shorter cd on phantasms, there is not much direct mitigation. On top of that I’m no condition so I wouldn’t take MtD

My question still stands. Blind or stability?

3D modified & updated

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8OncfClqBuqBEgilej6cDKhQwMAugMqeUX1XF-TpAIABOXGAgnAAA

The blank utility goes for your preferred well.
Blank sigil is for quickness on swap
Blank runes is for either Chrono runes or the new Toughness with 6th bonus + 150HP which gives you almost 30k (!!!) HP total. Not to be overlooked

thoughts?

Kusa.6438:

As for the power builds, I feel if you’re going to use chrono then you need to use Lost Time and Danger Time. They’re far too powerful to not use in a power build.

100% agree
This is what I used for the whole day

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8elknhi0YZawRNwtGL4GlZGkLVQZAsa/S9rOr7KA-TpBEwAGuAAQOCA52fAwBBIbZACPAAA

Small variations were:

• Gravity Well instead of MI or TW (all valid options tbh. The well is countered by Stability though)
• Hoelbrak instead of Pack + Moa for condi, mainly. Also, MoD instead of MoR for more interrupts

I think Chrono focused on slow is extremely strong for power. I wanted something to top it up like CI. In some occasions I was able to literally oblitarate ppl: tons of slow, some chill, immob and stuns. Ofc, you need to remove stab, so Domination can be better because of shattered concentration. However, still weak vs condi.

I also would like to add that breaking stealth on purpose is not a crime. It all depends on how the fight is evolving and it can be part of a manouvre or a tactic.

However, using decoy or torch with the reveal on is clearly a sign of rust
But it can happen if you are not used to stealth too much, like all memsers seem to do nowadays, at least in my experience.

We all know the stat values on amulets. Lets recap them here:

1200
1050
900
560

We can choose from 3, 4 or even all stats (cele) amulet.
If you choose 3 stats amulet than you get 1×1200 and 2×900.
If you choose 4 stats amulet than you get 2×1050 and 2×560
If you choose cele you get all the stats @ 560

Now, game started 3 years ago and the amulets choice was narrower than what we can choose from right now. Probably because devs realized pvp hadn’t much flexibility in terms of stats/builds/etc.

Later, more amulets where introduced to address the small choice problem, some were fine-tuned.

At the present time we have a comprehensive range of amulets. Yet, I cannot find what I am looking for, hence my idea:

Why not letting us choose the stats we want? The values are all set anyway, and a simple panel in pvp build page could let us pick 3 or 4 stats and assigning them the value we prefer.

For example I’d love to try a 1200 power, 900 crit, 900 condi. But you can also experiment when trying funky builds. I love bunkering with my mes and would like to try a 1050 toughness, 1050 crit, 560 power, 560 condi. And so on.

What do you all say?

All valid arguments. As always there is not one right answer and it probably boils down to personal play style, taste and situations.

However, what I noticed is that the traited curtain rarely helps when I really need it (pvp), making it a clunky mechanic for reflecting. It does work, but you need to pay attention to terrain and so on. Moreover, 90% of times I don’t leave the curtain and use the pull asap (check stab first )
The heal (and condi removal) on shatter is there, always, reliable and handy. It may be selfish, but I do the bunkering and boonsharing already so… that’s fine by me. But it is true… I solo queue and the healing suits me better.

And for the warden I do not care whether it destroys or reflects projectile as long as I get shelter which is the case indeed (I am really debated whether I will be using shield, focus or both, once HoT is out. Is anyone going to try it or is Staff too good to drop?)

Focus trait is too situational and not worth unless you do pve. Just ignore it and take heal on shatter, which is a must.
I understand focus isn’t for everyone but if you can get to like it, then it’s one of the best offhand we have and the best for a bunker.

Sol of illusions has a long cast but I shouldn’t be telling you this… you have stab on shatter. What else can you ask?

But we play bunker slightly different and I won’t try to convince you.:)

As Tobasco wrote focus is a far better weapon than pistol. At least for bunkers (but I also use it when doing lockdown power based)
Also, as it is now, warden grants more stacks of bleeds if you take phant fury than pistol does with pistol trait.

Furthermore, 5 sec of stability isn’t to be overlooked and defenitely much better than 2 sec provided by the mantra which, to be honest would need a little love

@ silverkey
Your idea is interesting, but I fail to understand how pistol can be a bunker weapon. Ok the stun and the daze… but I hardly believe how it can help you when bunkering for example mid, and 3 enemies are focus firing you. In those situation the duelist will not last 3 sec. because a) aoe will kill it very fast b) I woul shatter it because either I need a condi cleanse or a blind to save my kitten , which is more important than some dps

@messiah
I agree on what you say about condi vs power. This is the reason why I replaced soldier with cele. I think I am doing a great job with it. Not looking back. I think my build is one of the (very) rare occasions where cele can work on a mesmer.
Regarding utilities, lately I always try to have null. Then, I switch between feedback, signet of inspiration, blink and signet of illusions. TW always on
I would like to spend few words on SoIllusions. As bunker I find it extremely usefull and it greately helps my survivability: being able to use 4 or even 5 shatters (wrack can be used 2 or even three times with a proper rotation) and recharge them, means you can clear many conditions and blind pesky thieves/wars/guards so often to hold for very long. I’d advise you to give it a try

For torch, I don’t know man… I think it isn’t a very good bunker weapon but maybe you can make it work.

This is me
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8dlsnhC0YZawDNQtGL4G0ZJexKMzQIGZZAW9vA-T5AIwAAeIAm3fgYZAA

Sometime I slot in null field

What is your build?

messiah.1908:

for bunker mesmer chaos and inspiration lines is must so only chorno line can be good with slow, alacrity and shield is the better choise here

I am really debated on this point. Right now I have been running duel/chaos/insp and having a ton of fun bunkering mid or holding far with 2 enemies, giving numerical advantage to my team.

However, I have been thinking what I will be dropping once Chrono is live.
As Messiah wrote, the obvious choice would be chaos/inspi/chrono
But the more I play my bunker memser and more I value the blind on shatter. I think I will try duel/inspi/chrono: between blocks and blinds I think I will be very hard to bring down. Ofc, I wont boonsharing as much but I need to see how it plays out before making judgements.

One more think to munch on.
Have you thought that maybe, the best bunker mesmer will not be a chrono, but we already have it right here right now?

Mental Defender is on a 25sec CD. Pretending this is a clone generation trait and saying Inspiration is fine makes me smile.
It is arguabily not even a good GM trait because of the very long CD. It should go down to 5 sec if you want it to be a valid DE alternative

Ghost, sorry for derailing your 3D, but you do not get an error message, nor a log but Anet replies to your question.

I opened a 3D WITH a log, months ago and recently bumped it and no one, let alone Anet, has ever bothered

See this
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Client-keeps-crashing-4

Good luck mate

2
An Azura male which I got bored
Now I am on a male Charr

Sorry, still experiencing this problem. I just clean install the OS and updated it to win 10. I have nothing else left on my PC which could interfere. PC seems to run no problem.
I also tryied the GW2 reparing tool
What could it be?

please, help

Bubi.5237:

Did you check the build I linked or just came here and wrote something against phantasms in general?

This

Jokes aside, when talking about phant build I refer to builds with hard hitting phantasms, phantasms that do the job for you, hence builds with +damage, +crit chance traits & faster hitting phantasms. Those phant traits compete with CS and Maim, to name few.

All other phantasms related traits are in inspiration. Ofc, you can take them and call it a phant build but it will not work as its predecessor because the old builds, and the asskicker too, were meant to have strong phantasms that let you kill things quickly.

I like traited focus, phant regen and retal on phantasms, but even if take them all I am not going to call my build a phant build because it will remind me of the old builds and what they used to achieve. A build with those traits will not accomplish the same goal even if technically speaking is a phantasm build.

But maybe it’s just me who is completely wrong and you can call phant build any build that heavily relys on phantasms regardless whether it’s a support, a bunker, dps or a cheese PU build

PVP
Right now, if you do not shatter you are not playing the profession at its full potential.
Anet made it clear: they wanted us to shatter. And I think they succeeded. Now, when you shatter you can accomplish many things beside the damage: boons, soft cc, conditions, heal and conditions removal. Give me a reason why I shouldn’t shatter

This is why I think phant builds, the way we were used to, don’t exist anymore
This is also why phant traits are only good in pve. In pvp there are always better options fighting for the slot (only exception phant fury where not everyone takes pistol and not everyone like desperate decoy)

Same for me
Your friends are pretty good so the following matches went very well.
I think that two BBS mesmers can go, but than the team will need dps, for sure.

There was one of the early matches where I was up versus a tank necro which prevented me to cap home. Neither of us could die so the point was contested for ever. That was boring.

Other than that, I can handle myself well, even with two thieves. I switched crusader for cavalier and I laugh at thieves HS.

In certain matches I feel invincible. I jus dive in the fray, contesting, ressing, stomping, putting pressure, peeling. But sometimes I find people out there with incredible sustained damage. Bursts can be handled, if predicted, but prolonged high damage is difficult to cope with. In that respect I think goods eles are a problem.

Conditions aren’t an issue with triple mantra heal, so I am happy with +/- 16k HP. I can always replace blink with null, eventually.

I will be on tonight for more games if you like

Probably guardian does it better but I have no guardian to play with. So, I like the supporting role and I think that now it can be done pretty well.

Btw, guardian can also burst pretty well nowadays, but there are plenty of Fotm mesmers out there…
Also, a tanky memser isn’t expected so, it’s a bit of a surprise.

Trying to record some as soon as my pc is up

Hi guys,

I wanted to introduce a build I have been having much fun with in the past couple of weeks. I am not the kind of player who goes to the forum and make posts for every single build I try. But this time the numbers of /w insulting me made me realize the build achieves what the it aims at.

So, what is BBS? Simply a bunker/boonsharing build.

Let’s face it, you ain’t going to kill many, but you will hold points and your team will probably win the game. You can keep 2 players engaged easily, but even three people can be done with proper kiting, depending on profession and skills. All this while healing, removing conditions & sharings boons and/or distortion.

Someone even told me “they hate mesmers because of people like me, who destroys the class”. I do not really understand… if you are a Fotm you are a jerk because you run Fotm. I am trying something different and I get bad names for it… bah

Anyway, I started by following other threads about boonsharing. In that respect the build offer the same playstyle, with similar trait spread except for no DE but HM and mantra healing. The main different is the amulet, runes and the off hand focus instead of sword, which I believe better helps in capturing a point, since iWarden is stationary while spinning (utilities and sigils are different too, but they are more down to personal taste).

Here it is the link:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8dl0nhC0YZawDNQtGLrGk5M2RPPPSSie5GKeAA-T5AIABA8EAMZ/hqLDAA

For the amulet, the choice is wide. I preferred Crusader because it covers 4 stats instead of 3, so it is more well rounded.

For runes, the choice is even broader: if I have to stay middle I go for Mercy. Wanna go far? Resistance or Melandru

Utilities: SoInspiration is a must. I sometimes forget to use it, my bad, but it is a boost to the team performance if used at the right time. SoIllusions, I like it because it let you shatter 4 more times and thus blinding those in melee, helping survivability. Blink, is for positioning, catching people running away, poking ranged opponents but it can replaced… Null field is a solid option as much as SoMidnight for extra blind. Even mimic… It would be hilarious for 3 distortions in a row when hard focused

I hope to be able to share some videos soon.

Thoughts?

DoomKnightMax.6592:

What now? I’m most likely going to roll the underdog class. Play a non-SA thief till mesmers get nerfed again.

You do not really have to change profession if you do not like the Fotm. Keep playing mesmer with different builds. At least this is what I do. There are many viable builds atm, be it power or condition. Don’t tell me you cannot play anything without CS because otherwise there is something wrong with your post

If we are all here on this 3d is because we are trying the boonshare builds, I guess. If I am correct, than you both run bountifull disillusionmnet, which gives us the so-much-needed STABILITY.

Just time your recharge with a shatter and you are all set

For the reflect I used to use traited focus :P
Right now, I still use focus, but not traited, in favour of heal + condi remove on shatter + Staff

Tealots.6095:

@Trooper, Mantra heal is super powerful with the Inspiration line, yes. But, there’s one tactical advantage to running a traited mirror: Your character is “blurred” for a few seconds, which makes it difficult for the enemy to see what you’re doing. It’s like stealth, but you’re in plain sight.

Please, don’t tell me this is the reason you are running Mirror instead of Recovery, especially now, when mantras have never been so good. You may be able to trick some fools but I doubt even the less experienced get confused by that.

You may not like the mantra mechanic, moreover on a key skill like healing, I accept that. You may not want to drop DE in favour of HM, I accept that. But if you go in Inspiration, Mantra heal is arguably on pair with Feast (becuase of the conditions removed and the healing bonus from trait) and superior to all the healing skills we’ve got if you take HM too. Period. I cannot count how many times it saved me, sometimes because it removed never-ending immobilizations sometimes because stacks of torments-bleedings-fire on crucial moments. Or when you are about to cast your phant and get blinded. One charge and the phant goes through despite the blind.

I am literally in love with and not looking back
And I think mantras make the whole boonsharing builds stronger, because you are not only sharing boons but heals and conditions removal (if you take MoR, ofc)

I stumbled on this buried 3d and I realized I came up with the same traits spread except… I use mantras and mantra traits.

Has anyone tried Recovery heal? It heals a lot, especially thanks to the heal when charging mantras. I find it my preferred heal atm since I can remove conditions aoe and give some healing too. It gels well with the build concept.
With all those boons and stability it is very difficult to nail me down and thanks to traited blink and retreat I am slippery like an eel. I use GS and staff so damage is rather good, I’d say.

I am pretty sure the might stacks from Altruism are now 3 as tooltip. Nevertheless I still like the runes… what would you change it with for a support build anyway? I used centaur a little and it seems good…. what else?

My third utility, aside blink and decoy is MoD. I know, I do not have any interrupt traits, yet I find very nice to be able to interrupt ress and key skills. Also, I tried all other mantras: concentration is redundant because of Bountifull Disillusionment, recovery is redundant because of Mender’s purity and pain I do not dig it… an interrupt is always an interrupt, isn’ kitten

So far my preferred build :P Good job

I am also using Inspiration line. The thing is that since I started using double mantra (heal & MoD) I cannot separate it from dueling line. So I am left with domination when on pvp (for CS) and chaos when on wvw (for PU), like someone previously mentioned.

Regarding GM traits I find them a bit meh. The only one I truly like is Temporal enchanter (although if it lowered glamour cds too would have been much appreciated). Mental defense is ok but 25 sec cd is a bit too long and Illusionary Inspiration is just… for boonsharing builds I guess.

Sabwa.7358:

Interesting build you guys got there. It looks like a solid build, just not to my play-style.

The main difference in the two builds I see is that yours uses manipulation reflects + OH sword instead of the traited focus and is a bit more offensive and shatter focused. Everything else looks pretty similar. I can’t really argue with it except to say I prefer my traited focus and cele stats more ^.^

I think cele mesmer works just fine even without might stacks, escpecially when coupled with reflects. Staff as a weapon works fantastic with cele stats as it has ample condi damage, warlock does great physical damage, and it has great survivability. No stat goes to waste in my build and I love how the weapon and stat combo meshes. I’ve dueled multiple cele engis and cele ele’s with my build and it always ends in a tie, so it can definitely compete with other cele builds, we just never die…

I was exploring new builds for I wanted to go back to my beloved traited focus I had so much fun with before the patch, and I red this 3d with interest. First, let me say I finally decided on Staff+sw/f rather than GS.

Because of that, I wanted to give cele a shot. It wasn’t that bad, but since I wanted to retain the hybrid flavour, but with more damaging capabilities, I decided to try rampager. Have YOU tried rampager? of course, it is “less” safe than cele but it is a solid choice.

This is my build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8dl0nha0YZawRNwtGLnG05TSy1JDwCCa5IaeCA-TJRHwAFuIAp3fAwTAwZZAA

I think it does wonders. You may notice the double mantra + mantra trait. It’s just sooo good now. Mantras don’t have a cd anymore and can be recharged after you have used the 3 charges. This will trigger the healing from Restorative Mantra, which is kind of noticeable, and its AOE too!

I am very happy now because I can do good damage, use my favourite weapon, and still be slippery as hell thanks to the mender purity+mantra healing. This is the aggressive version I am running in pvp.

If you are not an interrupt/Lockdown type of mesmer, you also may want to check the defensive variant: swapping Domination for Chaos. It means dropping all the aggressive goodies Dom brings in order to get different flavours. You will retain the 3 mantra charges + condi removal and focus reflect, though.
This is something I do when I am in wvw to get PU which is sooo good now. By loosing CS you may want to replace MoD with MoR so conditions will never be a trouble anymore, or something else of your choice.

If you hate PU mesmers and do not want to join the Fotm wagon you can still pick CI (good with staff and focus for those interrupts + immo) or the boons on shatter for stability. Both solid choices.

Last. While in wvw I run with centaur rather than travelers: lay curtain, get the buff, charge mantra and you can refresh swiftness to get a permant boon, which coupled with traited blink and PU will make you so difficult to catch that even the old nike warriors could dream of (reflecting curtain is just icing on the cake: I laugh so much when you are running away and someone is trying to throw things at you to cripple or immobilize you, but gets reflected )

Conditions duration too. I thought that Chaos Persistance would make up for the changes but now that I read your post I do not think it does.

Also, boons come and goes so, I do not know how the calculation for boons and coditions is made.

• Lets say I have three boons…
  - I guess conditions and boons will last a 9% more than the baseline.

• But than you have a boon which expires before the other two.
  - Do conditions will reflect the -3% change?
  - And what happens if I receive 2 more boons soon after?

It is a kinda of messy to me…

Esplen.3940:

The 2s Mirror is via traits, not from the utility skill. I’d like to clear that up. The utility skill ONLY gives you the buff to reset a cooldown by itself.

ops, my bad. So I guess both duration and activation time cannot be changed

Well, I wish the base mimic could do something other than “just” copy an utility, sort of mirror heal which reflects and heals. But I guess I must be happy for having mimic finally fixed to an acceptable state

messiah.1908:

also worked well in wvw

taking camps with 20 confusion stack and above aoe and roaming around 1v1 and 1v2 if much larger group i need pu with stealth abilities

It does indeed. I had some fun yesterday with your build.
In pvp I run it with travelers and bursting instead of generosity.
Also, mimic instead of null field for a double mirror images

Btw. I consider yourself a condition builds expert. From your posts here and there, I do not understand if you are happy about condi mesmer atm or if you are not. The build works great even with 1 stack per MtD instead of 2. Isn’t condi mes “balanced” now and “op” before the nerf?

One thing I have to say is that probably, everyone who is using this utility now is for the mimic thing. No one really cares for the mirror, which is just the icing.

However, I think the 2 sec mirror could be improved a little.
First, 2 sec are too short. 5 should be better, even if 3 seconds would be more balanced, I believe.

Second, the time mirror activates should be when I press Mimic, not 2-3 seconds later. As it is now, mirror is just a bonus: reflecting something it’s a matter of luck rather than skill. It is really hard to reflect anything at all tbh.

Thoughts?

Leodon.1564:

I think the skill would work/flow better if it duplicated the last utility used within 10 seconds instead of doubling your next casted utility spell.

well, this would make it a must have on our bar. I like the idea

cit. " You put your AOE, let me put mine" I lolled hard

Nice vids. You seem you are having fun with Time warp. That ele got literally melted… So TW influencies the conditions behaviour too, doesn’kitten But it’s hard dropping MI, especially for the long cd of TW

How would you do with sword+pistol instead of staff? or sword/torch + sc/pst?