Guild Wars 2

I only hope they are not going to “improve” Malicious Sorcery the same way they “improved” The Pledge and Chaotic Dampening.

@Ross
Drats ! ……….but dead phantasms can’t be shattered or have fury either so into the bin with Chronophantasma and Phantasmal Fury as well.
Have i got that part right Ross ?

I,m specifically thinking of iSwordsman and iWarden, the 2 damage phantasms that work within the Avenger/Wells 240 radius. I’m assuming that an iSwordsman with PH and alacrity would have a 2.1 second attack rate which would not only result in more damage in a given amount of time (ie 1 minute) but more survivability due to him evading more often in that time.

Are phantasms attack frequencies affected by alacrity ?

Well ok, I’ll stick my hand up for possible ridicule. I use it in a PvE solo condition build.
Dom, Duel and Illusions. The vulnerability on this trait and Dazzling is 8 sec. I run 95% condition duration which translates to 15 sec duration on the vulnerability.
A 4 illusion Diversion shatter on for instance Sc/T (a weapon set with no vulnerability) Instantly spikes 24 stacks of vulnerabilty, 4 Torment and 4 confusion. I try to load up via Geomancy, CoF etc after that to capitalise on the extra condition damage. Stun would work against me and Empowered Illusions is irrelevant in a condition build. Its the high vulnerability stacks i want.

@Frifox
Have you considered Nightmare runes, sigils of Malice/Geomancy, Midnight signet along with duration food and utility gives 95% duration on all conditions (100% on confusion obviously). Throw in signet of Inspiration and you have near permanent 100% on all conditions and still be over 1900 condition damage.
I,m not suggesting its a better PvE solo set up, but its been eating things alive since I,ve been playing around with it.

Mirror heal and Balthazar runes get revisited on my new PU condi. Signet of Inspiration becomes standard across most of my builds till HoT. Other than that too many enhancements and possibilities to list.

Ah, yes Xyonon but why stop at 4/6/0/0/6 for your phantasm dps ? Why not go the full hog with 6/6/0/0/6 ?
Then as the latter part of your post suggested, the devil really would be in the detail.

All jokes and the typo aside, our choices are pretty much as you stated it in your summary.

^ Exactly and it doesn’t have have to be a condi build to make use of this. I use a power based , clone /cripple spamming build in open pve to control mobs and enhance wastrels punishment uptime, amongst other things.
Dodge rolling to overwrite clones with 3 illusions up is not a sign of bad play, there might be other intentions at play.

The confusion duration on the interrupt used to be 10s it was changed to 8s with their overhaul, presumably the bugged duration was fixed at the same time though 16s duration would still be achievable through other means.
If it was aoe confusion you were considering then the asuran pain inverter(outside of pvp) is the strongest, 3 stacks @ 5s base duration, 5 targets in 360 radius, on a 30s cd. Making my sylvari mesmers’ cry of frustration all the more poignant

The vulnerability would not be my preferred outcome, its speculation based upon the sword and staff AAs and seems to be the only tame condition they could add to the first 2 chains in the auto attack. It is still a condition and as such is not at odds with their stated intention with scepter.
As for blinding befuddlement, if they are not going to remove the ICD then they should buff the stacks in compensation because as it stands now 1 stack of confusion with a five second ICD is a joke.
In all other respects I agree with what you posted.

I wonder why so many manic depressives play the mesmer class, it might have its challenges but nothing to warrant the henny penny idolatry you see in these forums.

Vulnerability, vulnerability, blind. Blinding befuddlement changed to 2 stacks of confusion @ 3s duration rather than 1 @ 4s. Vulnerability I,m basing on sword and staff auto,s but weakness would seem a possible alternative. The blinding befuddlement change because that trait (like many others) needs an overdue buff .

They should combine the 2 least used mantra traits Protected and Mastery. The freed up trait could be used to add aoe to MoP with its damage balanced accordingly whilst traited and otherwise unchanged whilst not traited.
* edited post

Sorry, i cant agree with you on your summation of mantras. I also fail to remember mantras being “really strong with a single charge”. Indeed, as I recall it, mantras were borderline useless before they buffed the number of charges and HM. I also believe those buffs were warmly received by the community at the time.

Both MoRc , MoP (auto attack) and HM are permanent fixtures on my phantasm build
and I have no issues with them at all. Whilst a buff to mantras would be further appreciated, I would rather not have wholesale changes made and potentially end up
worse off.

Just as an exercise in brainstorming and playing around with builds I,ll throw this hybrid into the pot. Untested, untried and in all probability underwhelming it centres on spamming burning, bleeding and vulnerability. The 100% condi duration is not only for the damaging conditions but also applies to the control effects on sword eg , immobilize 4s (easier to land a shatter or a chaos storm ) , vulnerability, blind and cripple in general. Feel free to rip into it.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhQQNAW8flknpMtdqxGNcrNSpBh6zkmmSyAUhS+iyB-TViGABFtPAAPBAHV/J3LCQUKBFSJ0KLMAlyn10NEAABYmzMZWmBDdoDdoDdoVmDdozcmlCAidVA-w

Are you in melee range when you activate mind wrack ? Just as your clones have to close the distance to explode, damaging your target, so you must be in melee range at activation of the shatter. You can check the combat log, if just yourself shattering then 1 mind wrack entry, you and a clone = 2 mind wrack entries etc. Yes it is working as intended.

I would remove the friendly bounce entirely and with it the the retaliation and condi removal on bounce. Have it bounce to 3 enemy targets base, 4 with bouncing trait. Add either burn or chill to its confusion attack and lower the base cd of the phantasm by 5 secs. As far as the direct damage of the iMage goes i would have that scale off conditions as per the warlock but at a reduced percentage basis, maybe 5% per condition. With all of the above balanced accordingly.

The signet active closely followed by timewarp might be strong in some situations and builds.

Yes i agree. My comment about facing 2 duelists at the start of a fight was made more for effect than as a preferred method to use the signet. I do think the signet offers enough, when traited and complimented with other passive damage reduction/regen sources, to see it used in some builds.
The next few weeks should be interesting as ppl try to nut out its potential or just simply dismiss it out of hand.

I,m not so sure its as weak as you might think nor can its active be so easily dismissed. Condition and burst pressure are a 2 way street and i,d rather not be starting a fight with 2 duelists blasting away at me.

I cant see how this signet wont be viable in a PU build, at the very least. Dom VI, Chaos IV , iDefender, Sigil of Leeching and ready access to stealth and its defensive boons looks pretty tanky to me.

The charr fractal, Urban battleground, is not difficult to solo at low (fractal) levels once you familiarise yourself with it. I’ve done it a number of times. The front gate can be tedious but after that the only real challenge is the champ at the end but again he can be soloed comfortably once your familiar with his aoe and add spawn.

Thanks for testing that Pyro, I haven’t used those runes since travelers* were released and only read recently about the duration bug.

The perplexity runes on interrupt confusion duration is 10 seconds so presumably that becomes 20 secs with 100% confusion duration. I actually consider confusion damage in open world environment nowhere near as bad as ppl make out, so long as you max out its duration.

Well that IC change alone will certainly strengthen the viability of a 20/0/30/0/20 dire geared condi build versus the ever popular Blackwater. It will also bring the utility phantasms back into the picture a little bit more. I certainly hope it makes it through as it was an overreaction to place it so high in illusions to start with.

Big, silly Norn. Mesmers not for you. You’re supposed to run along behind the mesmer and sweep up all the butterflies ….. silly Norn.

Well then we’ll just put that down to a matter of opinion.

For you Domination might mean the power tree but has it crossed your mind that for a condition based mesmer its also the condition duration tree and that the 20 points spent on the torch trait also brings with it 20% condition duration, which is the real reason that weapon trait is positioned where it is.

Actually i should qualify that, the 4k 5s aoe burn is with duration food, without it is 3.75 seconds and 2451 damage. If nothing else it shows the benefits of condition duration in a condition build.

I use scepter/torch and staff, scepter and torch are made for each other, torch traited = 20% condi duration, scepter traited = 200 condi damage.Torch is not only a lot of fun to play but is an effective condition weapon which when traited has good secondary utility skills. I use the bouncing trait for the staff and the mage, mage if you position yourself right can hit 3 enemy targets with his traited bounce, that and IP traited CoF is good aoe confusion on small clusters. Initiate all that with the prestige and throw in its 4k aoe burn and you might see some situational potential.

20% duration from 20 Domination tree for Torch trait, 10% duration and 211 condition damage from runes.

Each to their own, I wasn’t promoting the build per se (though i do use it), i was attempting to show the upper levels of torment damage and duration.

No other buff, with no plus 40 duration + 70 condition damage food, the base overall condition damage with scepter equipped and signet of domination is 1956. The duration of torment drops to 10.5 secs and damage to 5261 base, +5261 whilst moving. Though 501 damage per sec whilst moving is probably more indicative.

In a 20/0/0/20/30 build with scepter/ torch traited + 5 nightmare and 1 undead rune, plus 40 duration food and 2k condition damage it lasts for 13.5 seconds on a 7.25 second cd and does 7k damage base and up to another 7k whilst target is moving. Or if you prefer 519 per sec base plus 519 per sec whilst moving.

You might consider swapping the 20 out of inspiration and reinvesting them into illusion. That will give you 200 condi damage across both weaponsets rather than just sceptre torch. With the 33% confusion trait , the Phantasmal haste trait and plus 40 condi duration food your mage if left unchecked will be able to maintain a constant 3 stacks on the target with a half second 6 stack overlap. This is a good base to build upon with CI and 6 stack CoF. i use this build quite regularly in pve in full condi gearset. I use Sigil of Battle on both Staff and Sceptre and swap on cooldown to build 26 sec might stacks. Sigil of speed on Torch, Signet of inspiration and first aid kits takes care of swiftness. With this set up you will have 30% boon duration, 60% condition duration and 93% confusion duration.

I have used scepter from beta 1 to the present day and can never fathom where all the hate comes from. 20/30/0/10/10 pistol traited, glamour cd traited, confusion 33% traited. sigil of fire aoe and force. Chain – duelist, feedback, pistol stun, confusing images for 10 or 11 confusion stacks. with a hybrid gear set and modest 450 condition damage i see mobs regularly taking between 5 and 7k total confusion damage during the short time they live (albeit not with that short chain alone) Condition duration food and multiple duelists + ethereal fields for bosses. The direct damage from scepter in a power crit or hybrid build is not as shabby as some ppl would have you believe either.

You might also consider runes of Balthazar. I played around with a build using Mirror heal offensively, decoy and heal as a psuedo prestige. With duration food and sigil
of smoldering i could get 10 ticks at 768 per tick out of the heal/burn aoe. For what ever reason , my testing showed the burn from prestige didnt scale with condi duration as well as the heal did. From memory 5k was the best i got out of the prestige burn. I tested using the mosquitoes in southsun. Apply burn and count ticks.