Guild Wars 2

Dunno if it’s already been posted but when keep pressing Mesmer sword skill #2 it activates twice in a row. I have not noticed if it deals the damage or if it gives the blur effect twice but for sure the animation starts again. It happened to me few times during frenzy fights where I would keep pressing it mindlessly.

I hope it helps

Wow… these are a hell lot of information and sources. Thanks guys. This should make life for any casul player much easier… great!

I shouldn’t have opened a 3d for this probably but:

- complaining seems to make things happen sometime (got almost 90 ore yesterday )
- that was by following some suggestions you guys gave me (golem event above all)

If it only was that easy whenever I log… but I guess I can now see the end of this and future seems brighter now

Thank you all

jsduke.6537:

trooper.2650:

I spend 50% of my time in the mist and 50% roaming

God that must be boring. You should try playing the game some time. It’s pretty cool.

It all depends on how often a week you do it. I play the part of the game I enjoy the most, when I can. If I have spare time I don’t mind doing occasional dungeons, guild runs and new content. I know it’s a pretty cool game. Actually I really love it. If it wasn’t for the gring of dragonite… Gee, I have all other mats ready, why I cannot just buy it on TP?!?

Well, I have already wined enough on two different posts about this. That’s it

Believe me, I am prepared. I am not crying for having it now. But after a rough calculation based on what I managed to get so far I believe it will take me 2-3 months if all goes well.
I have no problems apologising if I hurted you but the way I red your post was “no time to play? not entitled to ask” sort of message and didn’t like it. Sorry mate.

You see, I play spvp to try out builds which I would eventualy use in wvw. Having a little drop of these materials in the Mist too would help a bit.

The feel of starting a duel/fight knowing that your gear isn’t as strong as your opponent’s triggered the craving for having the top tier available right now. I just do not want to think what it’ll be when crafting Ascendent armor will be possible. I won’t probably even bother…

Like you all guys have suggested I tried using the online timers available but it wasn’t of great help. I guessed servers which were indicated to have the event active but once logged in people were not there to do it. I guess it was late at night but it ended up in a waste of little time available I have for this wonderful, and I meant it, game.

I supposed I just have to be (very) patient

KyreneZA.8617:

trooper.2650:

Thank you all for your answers.

However I find this a bit frustrating… I have everything needed to craft my first ascendant weapon but dragonite. And since I play once/twice a week max, and because of my limited playtime I struggle forming a willing helpful party of 5 people, this is getting rather long. On top of that the jormag event failed few times when I was lucky to get there in time.

I am aware I am a very casual player but I would appreciate if Anet could lower/remove the need of this or just make it more accessible to everyone. Of course, I am sure you all do not find this so frustrating as it is for me. Nevertheless this is the only game I play and with this drop rate I think it will take me half a year to have it done :/

If you play that casually, then you definitely will not even notice the difference between Ascended and Exotic. I don’t see that you really need Dragonite at all actually.

Yeah right… as if I was dumb. Does it require you to play 8 hrs a day to notice if a weapon is stronger or not? What’s wrong in wanting the best weapon out there for when I can log and have fun while roaming in wvw or the occasional dungeons/events? I am not even trying to go for the legendary. Just the top tier of what’s available now.
Gosh, some people just think that because they spend half of their life in they game “can” and whoever spend less time “can’t”… That was EQ 10 years ago.

I don’t “deserve” anything… I want to earn it like everyone has to. But the amount of grind is enormous. Also, if I coul get a small quantity of dragonite from pvp in some way that would just make me happy as I spend 50% of my time in the mist and 50% roaming

Yamagawa.5941:

Dragonite a grind? Pah. I get that in daily fun- making

How much do you play and how many 80s do you have? I have two but I play only one basically.
Once, twice per week is what I can afford to play. I like doing spvp, tpvp and roaming wvw rather then open world and megabosses. Occasionally dungeons. I have 150 dragonite so far. When will I be able to get my only one Ascendant weapon? end of 2014? Great! Implementing Ascendent gear? no please. Keep it as it is now.

Thank you all for your answers.

However I find this a bit frustrating… I have everything needed to craft my first ascendant weapon but dragonite. And since I play once/twice a week max, and because of my limited playtime I struggle forming a willing helpful party of 5 people, this is getting rather long. On top of that the jormag event failed few times when I was lucky to get there in time.

I am aware I am a very casual player but I would appreciate if Anet could lower/remove the need of this or just make it more accessible to everyone. Of course, I am sure you all do not find this so frustrating as it is for me. Nevertheless this is the only game I play and with this drop rate I think it will take me half a year to have it done :/

Dawdler.8521:

Cant have everything. That’s the point.

This

From my little experience and my poor playing style I came to realize that what Dawdler says is the truth. And if you do not like switching weapons according to the situations you have to learn to adapt.
Think of your prefereed play style, choose the weaponsets (and gear) accordingly, go on and take the most out of it. There always will be situations where you wish you could have used a different weapon/talent build. But if you are like me and prefer to stick to a weaponset although you know in the particular moment you are not min/maxing dps, just improvise There’s nothing left to be done.

@Dawdler. Just curious to know what your gs/staff mantra build looks like. Mind sharing it? Thanks

How to farm dragonite?
I do Jormag once a day and the boss in the eternal battleground when possible. Who else does drop it?

Thank you

Sorry, but has anyone mentioned the too long and unecessary animation before casting Scepter #3?

Also, aside from scepter issues, I have been wondering what “confusing combatants” is doing up there so high in the crit tree. It’s clearly a condition minor talent and would be better to be put elsewhere. It gels extremely well with Debilitating Dissipations for example. I doubt anyone going that high in the duelist tree is truly interested in that… If I want three talents in Duelist I have to take it but if you ask me if it is useful well…. the answer is no: I don’t see conditions/confusions and very high crit builds go well together.

/chr

Hello Chaos, I tried the build and liked it a lot. I run GS instead of staff for more burst but I tried to follow your tips as general guide lines.
I have a question. How do you see the build with only 10 pts in chaos (V) and 10 in illusions for shatter recharge (VI illusionary invigoration)? Ok, the talent itself has a rather long internal CD but those points let you also have quicker overall recharge on all shatters. Do you see it viable?

but removing a torment for example, and not being able to use a heal soon afterward because it’s on CD is kind of meh…

I understand what you are saying but considering how easy is to re-apply conditions that single removal is kind of negligible. Ok, go ahead and remove 10 stacks bleeding my iduelist applied to you… however, if not dodged it will be re-applied 4 seconds later.
True, all our tools, except traited torch won’t be able to cleans conditions on short intervals. Again, I think what that talent does is almost irrelevant in the economy of a fight.

The build is nice but I wonder how good a single cond. removal like Mender’s purity is. Is it worth it? Ok, it also gives 100 vitality and retaliation to phantasms… but I think you may as well get rid of it and invest 10pts somewhere else: no condi removal and mender’s purity is the same to me.

Nice videos. I see you use different weapon sets. Do you change build too? Do you mind posting them? Are you full zerker?

I dunno guys… I have tried so many variations…

I have come to realize that there is no a build viable for every encounter. Maybe it’s me but depending on who you are facing I found that a build is better than others and again it could be not good enough versus other professions. A build which seems very good vs ranged can be proved wrong if played vs same profession with different build. There are some many variables involved and perhaps this is the beauty of the game which keeps me hooked. I never thought the Mesmer was so versatile.

Playing Confusion is great. It is highly destructive when in group fights. The pressure will force the enemy to do something other than running. Depending on the encounter it isn’t bad in pve either (no fights Dolyak style though). Is it good in a 1v1? Yes and no. I had so many people just running as soon as they realized I was specced for confusions and I couldn’t do much to stop them. However if they are reckless they will just kill themselves.

With the setup I am running now I can easily stack an average of 15 confusions, and often going over 20 if played right. I use 30 points in duellist tree and 30 in chaos for PU. 10 points in the power tree for Crippling dissipation but these can be spent in illusions for +33 % duration on confusion. Here it is http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAsa7flwzqpXUzqGb9IipHEXwBckKUalewb52FC-j0CB4MhGpJQk0wkIBiQAMFqIasl1FRjVzATHjIq2YmIq2jATKgFlGB-w

The problem with this spec is that it relies heavily on combo fields. Having feedback or null field in the utility slot is ok. Having two glamour skills is also ok if playing in a party but can be too much if roaming. Decoy being the third utility.
Now, not having picked traited torch means you’ve got to get either null field or arcane thievery. Null field is a combo so it is perfect for the iduelist but you do not want to waste your only condi removal to proc confusions. That’s why I like running with feedback: if no ranged profession is faced I can still use it for confusion stacking. So, traited pistol in a confusion build it kind forces you to have at least two glamour. Having only one would be picking that talent kind of waste. An option would be using staff #5 and that would help a lot but that means dropping scepter and torch. Or just the torch since you cannot fast proc stacks of confusions without pistol, which in the end becomes mandatory.
In reality a very good variation of the build would be scepter+pistol / staff. But having PU and not Torch makes is a bit meh…
So it’s really like a cat running after its own tail. Building around ipistol+combo is hard. I think I could solve all the problem if I dropped deceptive evasion+confusing combatants (which was nice for the confusion flavour of the build). But that leads to a 20/20/30 blackwater kind of build which I tried so hard to move away from… So, after all this confusion stacking I am kind of confused myself

Sorry, Just a question on the travelers runes.
I tried on gw2 wiki but didn’t say how these runes can be found. You get them from TP but the prices is outrageous… can they be created or are they from rare drops?

Thanks

A (litlle) help comes from crippling dissipation+deceptive evasion: gimping someon’s movements always put pressure on them. Other than that stay far as much as possible letting phantasms dealing damage. If you need to get closer for a short burst (i.e. BF) make sure you have your blink out of CD or the swap weapons ready for a phase retreat or torch or signet of midnight for the blind (eventually a timed dodge would do) Engage a warrior without those and you are dead

Tbh I come from a 20/20/30 without knowing it was called Blackwater. I am not saying it was my build but I arrived there through experimenting. I had a small variation in gear, didn’t take retaliation from trait and used sword/pistol instead of staff for more control and more kills. However I got bored after a while. PU was getting mandatory for any build and wanted to move from there.

Anyway, I have not discarded the idea of stacking confusion but I have lately switched to 0/30/20/0/20. Stacking confusion via combo field is much more fun and rewarding. It’s great and together with perplexity a bit OP sometimes (20~25 stacks ftw). I can put a lot of pressure and deal very good damage. It’s not an aoe build though. Let me know if you want all the details about it.

I have been using a 0/30/20/0/20 with carrion gear+Perplexity+carrion weapons and rabid accessories and was very happy with the result. Null field, feedback, decoy and MI the utilities. Sc/ps + staff weapons. Battle sigil on both setups and +15% longer stun on pistol.

All I read is that playing confusion isn’t good because of how unreliable interrupts are for mesmers, which I agree. If it happens that’s all good, but the build should focus on stacking confusion via duelist+combo+clones death via DE and longer confusion from runes and trait. Plus straight damage from carrion+good crit rate from duellist tree and rabid accessories and bleeds. I say that playing to achieve the most interrupts is not worth, besides the runes set gives 3 bonuses: why play around the third one only?

The build and its variations is absolutely viable, even more when considering that there is no build out there that let you do everything successfully and faceroll any profession: you’ll be deadly to someone and hopefully not too weak to others. That’s called balance.

To the OP. If you want a confusion build try mine, or sentoxil’s one or make your own by using traited pistol which is the best a Mesmer has to stack confusion and decide yourself if it is viable. Don’t let others tell you that isn’t good without trying it. My two cents.

Thanks!
I too think that faster glamours are not really needed. But I still like the idea of confusing combatants so I think I will try 0/30/30/0/10 with sw/ps + sc/tc and perplexity runes.

However, I am still not sure of the gear to go with. All Rabid seems the easiest way but I would like to consider armor+weapons carrion and accessories rabid. It should give a good balance between toughness, HP, crit%, power and condi damage. What’s your PoW? Which food would you choose?

I’m trying few variations of this build. What do you think of:
0/30/20/10/10? In this case I would take Deceptive Evasion as a third trait in duellist tree. It gels well with confusing combatants and the confusing flavour of the build.
0/30/20/0/20 for a faster duelist. Quicker recharge of glamour skills is not always needed
0/30/30/0/10 PU
0/30/20/20/0 mender’s purity over malicious sorcery or even longer duration of glamour skills.

Weapons. I’m debated whether to use sword/pistol + scepter/torch instead of staff. Ok staff#5 is good for stacking confusion with pistol but requires good timing while scepter and torch just need to be activated + an always good stealth which would go well with PU eventually.

Last. What’s the best gear to go with these confusion stacking combo builds? I see you went for rabid. Do you see carrion or even rampager to be viable?
Which gear would you advise for WvW?

I forgot to say I am using decoy, null field and feedback + mass invisibility

I feel good using carrion weapons + armor. Although my WvW set isn’t finished yet my goal is to have all ascendent accessories rabid. So far no apotechary but from what I read mike seems very happy with his apotechary build. I may give it a chance too at some point… But I guess you need PU to make it shine

I do not think this is a viable build for hotjoin pvp, at least not mine (20/0/25/0/25). Lack of perplexity runes is a big concern. I have been using nightmare and adventurer but they do not replace perplexity. In the end this type of build is too slow to kill people who know what they are doing, especially when fighting on a given spot that needs to be conquered. I did well in 1v1 but not always, especially eles weren’t easy. With 2v2 up to 5v5 was ok but bigger scale fights were a trouble. Its major problem is the lack of burst and confusion not lasting enough, even with trait V in illusions.

However in WvW I never had the feeling I couldn’t kill someone if the fight was fair but even 1v2 I did often well. In the end I am very much satisfied and will keep using it in WvW. As far as spvp I guess I will have to try something different: conditions and Mesmer aren’t made for each other I think. Other professions can apply them much better and with reliability.

mikelevins.4639:

This. You couldn’t write it any better. However if they are not running they will eventually die.
One thing I was thinking about imbued diversion is that it is a kind of wasted trait when doing 1 vs 1, ain’kitten And even on bigger scale fights you can apply max of three aoe stacks of confusion on a long cd anyway, which isn’t much considering the nerf confusion got. Am I right or do I miss something? I mean you can still stack a lot of confusion on your target but those around u will get a max of 3 and tbh I do not see it as game breaker talent.

Sharper images. It’s a great minor talent but it pairs well with the duelist or zerker phantasm and both don’t gel with the flavour of the build (unless you trait the pistol for confusion combos, but in which case you’ve got to give up on something. If you drop inspiration tree you loose your condi removal and still wouldn’t be enough. Would you sacrifice PU or ID or both?). I would leave crit tree alone…

Today went well. Few 1v2 won vs guardians, hunters and wars mainly. Only when vs 3+ I had troubles (but it was hard to kill me. Eventually I downed someone but couldn’t stomp them). The only thing is that often ppl when loosing were making a run and confusion wasn’t helping: if someone is turning his back to you is like killing a doliak if you know what I mean. The only skill triggering confusion would be his healing which is often not enough to get him killed by even a big confusion stack.

Apart from that I am pretty much satisfied and like the build a lot. My accessories are all ascendent quality: a mix of rampager, knight, cavalier and rabid. This means I still have a lot of crit and crit chance to get rid of but stepping down to exotic quality accessories just because I not not have the funds to get all ascendent apothecary for example, it seems a waste. So for now my set up is far from being “ideal”.

What is your rotation when starting a fight? Do you start with staff? What are your tricks?
As far as dodging you are right. In fact I will not equip the energy sigil. But don’t you miss sigils on your weapons?

It’s good to share ideas
Have you thought of using veggy pizza? Your conditions will not last very long, aside from confusion of course. Also, why not trying a sigil of energy? Not having critical infusion means not dodging very often.

As for me I think I will give perplexity runes one more go. Furthermore I will consider accessories with healing power too. Let’s see how it turns out…

I like the ideal of it but as I wrote earlier… don’t you feel a little underpowered? Yes, good conditions, good healing and good stealths…. but when facing good opponents I was like “gosh.. I will never be able to kill this one with this setup” Really, I had the feeling I couldn’t kill people without the power I have now. But hey, maybe it was me…

As mike said it could be difficult to get used to play with no deceptive evasion. I am still practicing but I seem to do well enough without it. However I am still fiddling with the build and atm I have tweaked it a little: 20/0/25/0/25. Again, it is hard not to take PU. It requires much more attention but the survival you loose from it is regained by having a shorter CD on decoy and phase retreat. I come from a 20/0/30/0/20 as you see from my previous post, and this new one is a step closer to mike’s build without giving up on traited torch which I like so much.

A further change I have done is swapping the armour only (for now) from rabid to carrion. When I will have the founds I will take the weapons too. I find it better because it greately boosts my power without giving up any condition damage. Being a fan of battle sigil and noble runes I can stack might easily. Weapons like staff and scepter greately benefit both from power and cond damage and they now really hit hard. In fact I was not too confortable with the overall damage output of your build. Although rabid has decent crit chance it wasn’t really cutting it for me so I decided to drop it almost completely in favour of more HP and power (edit: conditions do not crit!). My cond power with 5 stacks of might (easily obtainable) is around 2400 and 2700 power! I do not see how to improve this further without loosing survivability and manteining the original build flavour tbh..

However, accessories will be rabid giving me the thoughness needed.

So far so good

Link

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNAW7flwzipXUzgGb9IhZGBH5oZc9qTSRpfNA-jUCB4MCy0CwkIBKFqIasVhFRjVzATHjIq2YmIq2HATKgFlGB-w

I was working on this build early this morning before I started reading your post:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNArfWlwzipXUzgGb9IhpHBH5AHlir7dSKU9rB-TsAgyCpI0SplTLjWStsaNEZJyUAA

They seem to be similar in some ways… I started fidling with it form a spvp pow and if I like it (never played with so low crit chance) I will try it in wvw too. In my previous experiences I found that traited torch is so far the best condi removal we’ve got and PU just makes it even stronger. Now I just wonder whether I can kill someone or not with this build Survival should be fine, I am pretty sure about that…

The only thing I am debated now is which runes to use in spvp.
In wvw I would like trying either noble or tormenting… Whem I tried Perplexity I didn’t like it much tbh…

Is there an app for iPhone which you would recommend? I need one that can let you choose the armour too. The one I have been using is only for weapons and talents but I want to be able to select runes, sigils and so on… Anything out there?

Ty

Pyroatheist.9031:

trooper.2650:

K U T M.4539:

Can’t really give it a full overview atm, but “Phantasmal Strength” is more beneficial in phantasm power builds than condi builds.

This is something I will take in to consideration. But this build already allow me to get phantasmal haste and fury… missing out on p. strength seems a waste. The build is already lacking in power and the iduelist is suffering from this. Ok, he gives good bleedings, but why deny him a 15% more damage? Lets face it… the only damaging conditions are bleeding (we have plenty of that), poison (random from Chaos storm every 35sec ), torment (if I take tormenting runes ok… otherwise meh..) and confusion (again meh and don’t ask me to get Perplexity )

Phantasmal strength will be worthless in this build. An extra 15% of horrible damage is still horrible damage. % boosts only get effective when the base amount boosted is rather high, at which point they become great.

Are those 5 points better spent in Dueling for the last minor trait or in Illusions for extra cond damage and one more major trait?

K U T M.4539:

Can’t really give it a full overview atm, but “Phantasmal Strength” is more beneficial in phantasm power builds than condi builds.

This is something I will take in to consideration. But this build already allow me to get phantasmal haste and fury… missing out on p. strength seems a waste. The build is already lacking in power and the iduelist is suffering from this. Ok, he gives good bleedings, but why deny him a 15% more damage? Lets face it… the only damaging conditions are bleeding (we have plenty of that), poison (random from Chaos storm every 35sec ), torment (if I take tormenting runes ok… otherwise meh..) and confusion (again meh and don’t ask me to get Perplexity )

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQNAraWl0zqpXUzgGb9IyZGQn0hmB25dlUgbXIA-jUCBINCi0CAkIRMHqIasVhFRjVzATHjIq2YmIq2HATKgFlGB-w

With this build I want to achieve the highest condition damage possible without loosing in survivability. The calculator shows 2529 damage with a 25 stack of condi and only 5 of might which I think I can easily stack even more (I will explain more on this later). Do you see it viable?

My doubts.

- I am debated whether to use a torch or a pistol as off hand. Torch is without shadow of a doubt a condition weapon but it’s weak, especially if not traited. Having picked “sharper images” I think pistol is a much better option: stronger overall damage plus a lot of bleeding. Down side: no stealth for those hairy moments…

- Phantasmal Strength or 30 points in Illusions. As I said I want the highest condi damage possible from this build. I already spent 25 points in Illusions. Should I take 5 points off Inspiration (loosing Phantasmal Strength) and put them in Illusions for extra 50 condi damage? (I do not want to take shatter traits and Illusionary Elasticity would be the third choice)

- I see Illusions and dueling to be mandatory. Should I spend 20-25 points in Chaos for Chaotic Dampening/Chaotic Transference instead of boosting the scepter and Phanstasm damage? +5% of thoughness in condi damage would be less than 200 from traited scepter… I could even go 30 in chaos and pick PU which is a great boost to survival but my HP would suffer a big loss. Also rabid has already good toughness while lacking in Vitality.

- Utility. Signet of Domination boosts conditions damage and gives a lovely 1200range 3sec stun. I seem I cannot do without it but I am tempted to swap it for veil which unfortunately has a much longer CD.

- Is Phantasmal Disenchanter better than Arcane Thievery? Is Arcane thievery 100% reliable? Will it transfer conditions even if there are no boons to steal from the target?

- Runes. I see three options here and would like to hearing from you: Adventurer. Short CD on heals (Mirror) means much more endurance which will allow me not to take sigil of energy. Tormenting. 2 stacks of AoE torment every time I use mirror should do a great deal of damage with such a high lvl of condition damage… nice addition to my powerful bleeds. Noble. This one is intriguing me. 3 stacks of might on every heal + those from sigils which I have on both weapon sets should easily keep me on a minimum of 5 stacks. Which should I go for?

So, in this build, fast healing by using Mirror has a great synergy with cleansing (trait), energy (Rune of Adventurer) , aoe torment (Rune of Tormenting) and more damage (Rune of the Noble). Which one should I go for?

To me it all gels well together. What do you say? Do you see a weak side? Condition duration will come from veggi pizza. I wish I could have more points to spend in domination for longer conditions…

I’m using a 20/20/30/0/0 build like eldenbri except for the weapons, few traits and the armour. But essentially the play style is similar taking advantage of one of the best talent around which is arguabily PU. Stealth and phanstasms are you best friend. And considering the current meta state I advise you to pick up the torch, trait it and learn to use it. This, with decoy and mass inv will give you plenty of boons each time you hide. It will help you surviving while you learn the class. After that it’s up to you which way to go.

Vs classes who can stealth. You should stealth as well cuontering theirs if possible. It’s not the only tactic but it works. Stealthing can be a defensive action, the most obvious one actually. When facing defeate it feels natural but it is an offensive one too if used right.

When starting a fight I immediately use either decoy, so the opponent doesn’t have a reference point or signet of might. The stun 1200 range, allow me to close in, cast pistol #4 and #5 easily and then following it with the usual sword combo. That is enough to start putting quite a lot of pressure. Now the fight starts (but you already have the iDuelist out and munched on his Hps a bit) and depending on who you are facing, you can either stay close for few auto attacks or switching to torch #4, go behind him to further disorient him and use scepter # 3 until the fire blast from torch hits. This chain should be done by dodging every now and then, to help you getting the position you want, even if ther is nothing to dodge. This will kill your clones applying cripple (domination V) and conditions (chaos V). Don’t hesitate to use torch #5 too even if you have no conditions on you: you will soon switch to the other set so you might as well cast it for the boons it gives (at this stage you only have one phantasm out so the poor iMage will not replace any good phantasm). Once you get back to sword pistol it’s bursting time again. You should have either decoy or stun from signet ready (depending which one you used at the beginning of the fight). Use it now: if decoy is available it’s better since casting the first chain will be easier from stealthed. If you manage to land the stun instead all is good. If this fails (immune for example, or you are blinded) use mass inv to regain the upper hand.

These chains are great because they always let you have a trick up your sleeve and tbh I thought of this build to be a bit OP sometimes. It’s doesn’t have the highest dps output but it drives ppl crazy. I had ppl who were just defeated wispering me because they said the class is broken, is OP and bla bla bla. It works great eaither with berserker, rampager and I heard Osi using it with rabid but I’m not too convinced of it. It also works with knight for extra survival but once you know what to do I tell you… all that thoughness becomes redundant and you just want more fire power. The little buff PU received was great, let me tell ya.

And I have to say that when I see someone using GS it makes me a happy mesmer. I haven’t so far lost vs one of them, either be s/t/pvp or wvw unless they catch me fighting with someone else and I am already 50%hp low. In a straight fight 1v1 they just cannot compete since closing up will kill their dps and both torch (and all those stealth options+stun) and sword just let you do that, catching them from behind where Illusionary wave cannot do anyhing.

But the weapon sets I am using make me a hybrid mesmer, dodnt they? Power when on sword/pistol and condition based when on scepter (although it scales well with power too) and torch.

As I stated I am more a pvper than pve player so world bosses don’t concern me.
I am happy when on berserker but when putting pressure and need to switch weapons because my skills are on cd the pressure just drops since berserk doesn’t provide condi damage. The same happens when on rabid set but the other way round.

It’s like having max power on sword pistol (lets make it 100 for example) and 20 when on scepter/torch if using zerker. And if using rabid it becomes 20 on zerker and 100 on conditions. Rampager is a more balanced set giving a more sustained damage like a 50/50, ideal for such weapons combo. Just wanted to hearing your opinion.

Anyone using Rampager?

A little background first.
My main area of activity is wvw/spvp/tpvp. I don’t like big zergs and prefer small group fights.

At the very beginning I started with Berserker armour but found myself too squishy. I wasn’t very good and didn’t know the class very well.
I then went knight and that helped. Tried different builds, got my kitten together and improved my performance substantially.
Later on I wanted to try conditions builds and got myself rabid set but it didn’t last very long due to the nerf (the other day I also added perplexity runes to see how they are but I’m still not too convinced, at least for my play style).

Lately I am mostly on berserker. My skills are improved and so my general knowledge of the profession has so I feel much more comfortable even with low toughness. I get a lot survivability by using the following build which makes my Knight set almost redundant. But I feel I don’t do much damage when using scepter/torch and tend to use this weapon combo mainly for condi removal or escaping

Link:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAsa7flwzipXUzgGb9IipHEXwBckUUavWJF82FC-jEFBYLAYMgINRm6Ai+AmEBkIAI/pIas1MFRjVxATfCR5CQBDWDDSFD1MOQ2xoGzwecIuDYyAwOGA-w

As you see my preferred weapons sets are sword/pistol + scepter/torch and it’s been a while since I am on a 20/20/30/0/0 with PU.

Because of the nature of those weapons I think that a mix of power and condi damage would be ideal. So I crafted myself Rampager set. Runes: centaur. Overall this setup (although a bit messy on the accessories) gives:

. Enough crit. From 45% to 55%
. Power 3k to 3250
. Condition damage from 550 to 750
. Thoughness is okish around 2550 (PU helps a lot)
. Kind of low oh HP. Around 1650 with food (PU helps a lot)

Numbers are floating depending which weapon set I am using.
Weapons are still exotic quality and I will be upgrading them as soon as possible.

Questions:
How many of you are using rampager?
Which other builds are viable when using this armour?
When is rampager not good?
At the moment I have a rabid staff . Would it benefit from rampager gear more than from rabid? If yes, which sigil should I be using?
I was thinking of using staff + scepter/torch with same build but taking chaotic dampening over master of manipulation and phantasmal fury over blade training. Would be rampager armour or rabid the better choice?

Thank you for feedback

That’s amazing Osi, but what’s ur gear there? Runes? Isn’t lack of speed when running after an almost dead foe frustrating?

Hi guys. I’m using basically the same build with few exceptions. The main one is gear. I cannot deny that the reason for me to go for berserker instead of rabid is because I cannot walk in WvW without a speed boost. Having ppl running away or being able to run when needed is core to WvW, I think. I really cannot understand how you guys can manage to roam in WvW without it.

Since focus is for me not an option I am left with centaur runes which have synergy with zerker gear. And this is why I’m a power/crit based Mesmer. Fairly successful tbh. Been using scepter/torch and sword/pistol though.

I just wanted to share my experience but mainly I wanted to ask how you can live without an “on demand”speed boost in WvW. Condi builds are fun with the new set of runes but dropping centaur for it isn’t viable for my play style. How do you deal with ppl running from you?

any link to a site where we can have a preview yet?

Whatever way you look at it (yes, I did not consider the duration to make it easier) Torch to a lesser extent, but Scepter defenitely more they benefits from power more than cond damage. True, power suffers from thoughness but conditions can be cleansed so in the end it is hard to compare them and it’s down to your play style.

In the mist I tried Helios build while keeping the torch 20/20/30/0/0, switched rune set with Undead ones first and then Adventurer and also using staff + sword/torch. Amulet was first rabid and then rampager. I did very well and was impressed. Very good feeling so I thought let me try it in wvw.

I can easily swap gear set to full rabid+Undead runes+rabid staff but everything else stays the same as my current set up, since I cannot afford to buy all other rabid/rampager gear for now. Cond dmage went to 1300 roughly and it’s probably not good enough. However, the major drawback is the rune set. I cannot do without Centaur. I cannot run away, I cannot run after, you can only get carried by the raid but when roaming it’s simply not viable. And I do not see a conditions setup working with Centaur or Air. Am I right?

Switching back to knight and my usual setup the old feeling came back immediately and it was a joy moving around and downing the elementalist which was running away few moments earlier.

In the end I will keep trying cond damge setup in the mist for it was fun but since focus isn’t a condition weapon and rabid gear doesn’t gel well with centaur I will stick
to my gear and wait to see if I will ever be able to play without Centaur.

I will probably buy the remainig gear with a focus to thoughness or rather vitality since I am kind of low on that. What would be the minimum HP I shouldn’t go below?

Thanks all for sharing your thoughts

@Ansau
Lets do some math on the torch first (I used gw2skills.net build calculator for this so it may not be 100% accurate):

skill#4 has 302 damage + 984 fire x 3sec.
skill#5 has 446 damage + 195 confusion x 3sec

For the sake of the calculation I just picked 30 points in domination to increase Power by 300:

skill#4 is now 401 damage (33%) + 984 fire x 3sec. (0%)
skill#5 is now 446 damage (0%) + 195 confusion x 3sec (0%) (although I do not understand why 446 does not get affected by power like skill#4 does since the icon damage is the same and thus considered direct damage)

Now with 30 points in Illusions:

skill#4 has 302 damage (0%) + 1209 fire x 3sec. (23%)
skill#5 has 446 damage (0%) + 263 confusion x 3sec (35%)

It is obvious that torch benefits more from conditions. However it has invisibility (synergy with PU) and retaliation (synergy with Power). Also we all know how confusion works: if you do not spam during those 3 secs no damage will be dealt… Conclusions: to me torch benefits from both.

Now lets take a look at scepter:

Skill#1 has 168/168/252 damage
Skill#2 has 336 damage + 1275 torment x 8sec + 34 damage (counter spell)
Skill#3 has 840 × 5 damage + 5 stack of 325 × 5sec confusion

+300power:

Skill#1 has 223/223/334 damage (33%)
Skill#2 has 446 damage (33%) + 1594 torment x 8sec (25%) + 45 damage (counter spell) (35%)
Skill#3 has 1115 × 5 damage (33%) + 5 stack of 325 × 5sec confusion (0%)

+300condi damage:

Skill#1 has 168/168/252 damage (0%)
Skill#2 has 3366 damage (0%) + 1725 torment x 8sec (35%) + 34 damage (counter spell) (0%)
Skill#3 has 840 × 5 damage (0%) + 5 stack of 438 × 5sec confusion (35%)

Scepter, despite being a condition weapon it benefits more from power since the only ability which is not affected by it is confusion. All others, torment included benefits from it, not as much as with augmented condi damage but still not bad.

I do not think I will gear towards conditions.
I will consider improving crit chances since as you say we deal fast hits rather than slow single blows.

Signet of dominations helps A LOT. It’s not the condi damage that I am after. I often use the Signet Mastery to have it quicker but as much as invisibility from torch is something I will never trade for. It helps catching someone running or running from. It helps reviving an ally by interrupting a stomp or healing, putting pressure… it is more useful than you may think.

Anyway, thanks for the input.

@Helios
For some reasons the link is not showing anything.

So you are using knight for power. I have it too and used it before switching to PU. I now feel much safer with this build and this allowed me to swap back to berserker and downing people much faster. Of course, when facing multiple enemies in wvw I have to say that more armor wouldn’t hurt.. but it’s a trade off. For now I am more than happy.
Please, check the link. I would like to see what you came up with. Ty

I use Torch for stealth and retaliation. Scepter does a preatty good beam+block. The conditions part of this set is marginal and don’t care about it.

Traited torch saved my life countless times. Its sinergy with PU is amazing and scepter is overall a good weapon. I literally love the play style with 4 × 1h weapons while I feel GS and staff boring to hell. I used staff instead of sword pistol few times and I was literally unkillable with retreat from staff and invisibility from torch/decoy/MI but I could not kill kitten. I tried GS sword/pistol but lacks of an active “oh kitten button” which torch has (decoy and MI aren’t enough for me, especially when finding yourself in 1vsX). Hence sword/pistol is the offensive set and scepter/torch the defensive.

Buffs. Chaos tree + PU gives me already enough of that. Plus might when interrupting foes and switching weapon and swiftness almost on demand. Don’t feel I need more.

I would focus more on power rather than conditions for sure.
Given the accessories I have now what I am debated with is whether to buy accessories with mitigation stats or not. Should I reach a 50% chance crit or increase the power further or keep an eye on health and thoughness. What are the acceptable values for these stats in wvw?

Sigils. Would it be possible to run two stacking sigils and benefit of both at the same time? For example +damage and +crit on the same set or a sigil on each or the two sets for example?

After sorting out my play style preferences I would like now some feedback on gear and especially sigils.

This is exactly what I am wearing now:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAsa7flwzipXUzgGb9IipHDnvBckUoavWJF82FC-jUEBYLCZYMS00yA0HwkIgJPFRjtmpIasKGY6TIKXAaXwaYQqYomxByOO1ecIuDYBAxA-w

A lot of stealth helps with survival so I switched from knight armor to berserker and so far so good.
I still have to upgrade an earring and the back and sort out the sigils. Which accessories should I go for?

Sigils. Having 2 stun at my disposal I would like to take advantage of Superior Sigil of Impact on sword. Is it a good choice or should I go for something else? Being sword/pistol my offensive set I think the Battle on pistol suits it just fine.

On the “defensive” set I use Energy on either scepter or torch but unsure of the other one. Suggestions?

For the runes I find Centaur the only option for obvious reasons…

Talents. I am pretty much sorted with Adept tier in Chaos being the only one which I switch from -3% damage, conditions on images kill and -50% on fall damage (very fun to abuse in wvw )

Food. What are the best most popular ones in regards to a build/setup like mine?

Thank you for spearing few minutes of your time

/rgds

Azure.8670:

trooper.2650:

Well, thank you guys for the kind words

I have two 80s which unluckly happen to be a mesmer and a guardian instead of a warrior. That could have helped me to know the class better and not ask silly questions.
So, sorry if I did not know that a war can do that amount of damage with a rifle. If only I knew it yes, you can be sure I would have rolled out of the way.

Anyway, I apologise once again for wasting your time with noob questions

/tr

I did not, at all, intend to be a kitten. im sorry and apologize

That’s fine ^^

@Dawdler
What if you were cought in the middle of a fight @ 8k and he hits you for 8k? That what happened to me. I already learnt the lesson. Lets close the thread now, please.

The damage was 8k. I guess I was lucky then… The edit was for a typo mistake

Ross Biddle.2367:

Pyroatheist.9031:

If they 1shot you with 8,149 damage, I’d like to know how you lowered the minimum health on the mesmer by about 6 thousand.

Failure to read aye Pyro? He was “one shotted” from half health.

Anyway 8k’s nothing. I wakitten for 11k with at least 2900 armor. Sneaky backline warrior trying to take me out.

This

I remember him while channeling but as I said I did not know how much damage it can do. I’ll pay more attention next time!

Well, thank you guys for the kind words

I have two 80s which unluckly happen to be a mesmer and a guardian instead of a warrior. That could have helped me to know the class better and not ask silly questions.
So, sorry if I did not know that a war can do that amount of damage with a rifle. If only I knew it yes, you can be sure I would have rolled out of the way.

Anyway, I apologise once again for wasting your time with noob questions

/tr

just got one shoted by a warrior with a 8.149 kill shot from rifle. I am on 2827 armor. Not the thoughest but still okish. How is that possible?

I was roaming in wvw and the fight with a good warrior was even. I was keeping myself far and closing in for the occasional burst with sword. I did not bother to heal since the HP bar was half full… I had decoil, torch and whatever I wanted off cd… Half through the fight he just shot me once and to my disbelief I suddendly died.
My HP was 15602 but I am defenitely planning to increase it