Human progress isn't measured by industry. It's measured by the value you place on a life.
Just, be kind.
If you want to go bleed stacking the best way is sadly stacking a shitton of crit and keep 3 GS clones up.
Also trying to fit the torch in a pve build is hard because its so.... damn... awful...
---------- Post added 2012-10-22 at 10:22 PM ----------
I haven't done a build in awhile so here is something for you tank lovers!
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/mes...031|0|0|0|0|0|
This is... dun dun dun the clone tank build!
Your main weapons here are sword and torch with blood and water sigils. You will be stacking knights gear for toughness and you should have around 18k hp via traits which is acceptable with the amount of toughness you will be getting and blood sigil should cover the rest of the vitality you don't have.
Clerics gear would be optional of healing power scaled to something.... decent, but it doesn't so that is that.
The main strategy is filling every single illusion slot with something. Try to avoid shatters unless its the daze (for interrupt which half the time you won't need) and distortion. Your main clone generating will come from dodging. Dodge every time your dodge bar reaches full to create a new clone. The reason being is you will be rolling stacks of vigor thanks to critical infusion. So don't waste clone producing!.
Now on to weapon specifics. Why sword? Because scepter is crap in this scenario. The main focus is having mobs focus your clones, each hit on your clone is one less hit on you and your party members. So that also leaves out staff and GS as they don't have much survivability for melee in this case.
Why torch? I mean torch... come on... we all laughed at it. I still laugh at it, but that stealth even though on a long cd can force a mob to stop attacking you and attack your clone instead. With the torch trait it has a shorter cd plus Image becomes a phantasmal disenchanter! Though it still sucks. Don't be using Image on cd. Only use when minor conditions are going out and when you do use it. Dodge roll back then summon it so it is not in melee so it will not die super fast.
Offhand weapons? Scepter/Sword is what I am going with. The blocks make more clones and if timed right can save you if you are out of energy for dodges or if dodging won't get you far enough. Staff also works here if you prefer it in fact it is probably better in aoe situations.
Now for utility. Since you will be having all clone spaces filled up ether feast is a no brainer, providing max healing which you will need. Phantasmal defender will save your life and reduce damage you and your clones and any other party members near him will take. Don't summon more then 1 at a time because it will bug out and not absorb anything however most of the time it'll die before its cd is reset. That last utility slot is up to you, I took null field for a group cleanse however you can take something else.
The traits are self explanatory.
Sigils are blood and water, which I feel are a necessity in melee imo. Blood will be healing you, water will be healing your clones and party members near you.
Doing some reading it seems rune of the vampirsm heals for the amount of damage you did with that attack. So this will be the rune of choice, however once I get more money I will test it.
Last edited by zito; 2012-10-22 at 11:33 PM.
Arcane Thievery: This skill now appropriately removes the aegis boon rather than being blocked by it.
Confusing Images: This skill has been updated to fire at its correct distance.
Cry of Frustration: This skill’s tooltip now accurately shows that confusion it applies lasts for 3 seconds.
Mirror of Anguish: This trait no longer functions on necromancers when they have Reaper’s Protection active.
Phantasmal Warlock: This illusion’s recharge between attacks is now slightly longer.
Phase Retreat: This skill should no longer teleport players into geometry or other places they shouldn’t be getting into.
Scepter Skills: Projectile skills for the scepter have had their velocity increased by 33%.
New patch notes for mesmers...
The good news is hopefully this means no more teleporting into walls whilst using phase retreat ^^
Let's hope the Phase Retreat fix also works with Illusionary Leap's "Swap" skill too. Thievery's fixed. About damn time.
Warlock's been nerfed, but it does nothing to change just how tanky the Staff actually is. That Scepter update... the slow attack speed isn't complete butts anymore. Still lacking a real purpose (y u no confuse!), but at least they're acknowledging that it's the worst weapon by far.
Edit: At least the animation is fun to watch and looks really pretty now that it's, you know, actually moving. But as a heads up, it still waits for the hit to land before it changes over to the next one in the chain, it hasn't been coded differently just sped up. But given the speed of the projectile now, it's a much smoother move over, even at max range.
Still no update on a good chunk of our Phantasm traits not working correctly:
- Phantasmal Fury/Vengeful Phantasms/Phantasmal Healing conflicting with eachother and not refreshing properly.
- Phantasmal Haste still not triggering on several of our Phantasms
- And of course, clones still not using Offhands,or showing Map Completion Icons...
Another Edit:
So that Mantra suddenly looks like less ass. Blow two charges (or three charges) and lolz may infact ensue.
- Updated the stability boon to stack duration up to 3 times.
Last edited by Kelesti; 2012-10-23 at 08:33 AM.
~Former Priest/Guild Wars 2 Moderator~
Now TESTING: ArcheAge (Alpha)
Now PLAYING: MonoRed Burn (MtG Standard)
Twitter: @KelestiMMO come say hi!
~When you speak, I hear silence. Every word a defiance~
Not sure how "fixed" Phase Retreat is, but Illusionary Leap-> Swap parked me into the stairs under Dwayna's Shrine this afternoon.
Calling out to leave the mob alive so I can use it to teleport back out, instead watching "LOLOLOL" across my screen as the closest waypoint is halfway across the fucking map, yeah. Real warm feels about that one.
~Former Priest/Guild Wars 2 Moderator~
Now TESTING: ArcheAge (Alpha)
Now PLAYING: MonoRed Burn (MtG Standard)
Twitter: @KelestiMMO come say hi!
~When you speak, I hear silence. Every word a defiance~
The new phase retreat is annoying. It teleports you from the target now instead of just a certain amount no matter what.
I have used it and teleported to the left of my target, backwards. Meaning I was facing my target it teleported by back and left and turned me and my camera around.
I'm like... wut
Regarding there being no sets that increase confusion duration (like they do Bleed/Burn/Poison/Cripple, etc):
PvP set doesn't actually make it better for PvE, but what do you think? It might make it actually capable of building around (if perhaps Scepter gets it put into 1-chain like it's supposed to be?)Originally Posted by Jon Peters
~Former Priest/Guild Wars 2 Moderator~
Now TESTING: ArcheAge (Alpha)
Now PLAYING: MonoRed Burn (MtG Standard)
Twitter: @KelestiMMO come say hi!
~When you speak, I hear silence. Every word a defiance~
A confusion set would be awesome! I asked myself the question why there is none for confusion several times I actually enjoyed doing sPvP in a tanky scepter/pistol build centered around confusion/bleeds and I resorted to Undead set since I think that's the one that maximizes condition damage in general.
And yeah, make it available for PvE as well.
I do staff with scepter/torch (so much confusion due to shatters lol) and I run with nightmare, which gives me like 20% condition duration (10pts in Dom) and then I took the increased confusion duration trait so it's on them a TON, and I still have like 1500-1700 com damage...
I have to say, after these changes my Mesmer feels...slow. Personally I'd rather see reduced damage on skills with shorter cooldowns than higher damage and longer cooldowns. I like having buttons available to push and it really feels like I'm spending more time AAing, and that's not very engaging. Maybe it's my build, but I have to say I LOVE cloning/phantoms and it really feels like one of the more unique aspects of the game.
Human progress isn't measured by industry. It's measured by the value you place on a life.
Just, be kind.
I'm sticking with greatsword / scepter+pistol damage dealer right now but I'm curious about staff / scepter + focus support for dungeons. Can anybody say something about it?
~Former Priest/Guild Wars 2 Moderator~
Now TESTING: ArcheAge (Alpha)
Now PLAYING: MonoRed Burn (MtG Standard)
Twitter: @KelestiMMO come say hi!
~When you speak, I hear silence. Every word a defiance~
lol despite your sarcasm it works REALLY well xD, i use scepter torch a lot and pretty much make people cry whenever a clone dies... cripple, random con, confusion, giving me might if i shattered it... oh it's bloody glorious!! and so many delicious tears... You should try it sometime xD
I won't really support scepter in the state it is in now.
It's like a guy experimenting in college claiming he is straight. (lol). Most of the time in PvP I can't even get a full death beam off. And it's not bad timing its just everyone has something that can stop a 5 second channel and attack 1 is still slow as hell (don't know why they did missle speed and not casting speed it made almost no difference) it takes way to much time to get out a chain attack 3. Rather stack crit and vigor trait.
I just recently made a mesmer and to me it seems a bit weird class. I'm wondering what traits should I go for? Probably mostly for leveling purposes since I doubt I give up my engineer main, but I just want to level all classes to max lvl at some point.
I picked up greatsword, but before that I used scepter+pistol. I use shatters since, I feel the illusions are most useful that way. I'm not entirely sure what things I could get, but atm I'm thinking of putting points to increasing condition damage, power and precision in that order. The explosions seem to be power based, though, so I'm not sure, if I should put power first and then condition or even go for power, precision, condition.
I'm not too far yet so there is not much harm, if I have done wrong choices, but I'd like to at least play thinking I'm going the right way.
Well, you kinda do have crit and vigor traits with the build I was talking about... And actually I've noticed that I connect more with the scepter now that it's sped up instead of BARELY hitting people because a light breeze would throw the fucking bolt off course...
That being said... The death ray may not hit fully like ever, but when it does ohohoho do they cry!