Guild Wars 2 Class/Builds Discussion Catch All

AndrewA wrote:
Scaphism wrote:

[...big mesmer build post...]

Wow - I respeced to something similar to what you described, and it has made a world of difference. Trash mobs die like flies, I'm almost never without at least one clone alive, and I can take on Veteran mobs or groups of mobs without much hassle.

Thanks!

Glad it helped! It made running around the world and fighting trash mobs more enjoyable for me.
I recently tried switching to a build that emphasizes phantasms (which means I don't use shatter very often) but I didn't like it as much. I just hit 60 and switched my traits to 30 in illusions for Illusionary Persona (when you shatter it creates a shatter effect on you as well) which is great for shatter builds. I'm sure I'll try out phantasms again in the future, but right now I'm happier with shatter-heavy builds.

GrandmaFunk wrote:

The Berserker phantasm not needing LOS definitely feels like a bug/exploit, one I hope they deal with soon.

I disagree. I don't feel any phantasms should require line of sight.

Rangers and Elementalists can bombard with AoE without seeing their target all day long. Why shouldn't a Mesmer have an out of sight AoE?

I can assure you that Ranger and Ele AOE effects require LOS to aim. While they can aim on a wall and have the AOE spill over the top, their skills will never reach further than the AOE's radius from the highest point on the wall.

no other class can "shoot" through walls at something they don't even see.

I am still only low level but I really love the scepter/focus necro sans pets. The stacks of bleeding, the grasping hands, the thrown scythe that damages and grants regeneration on allies, and the #3 skill that does increased damage based on the number of conditions on the foe really rocks.

But the real star of the show is death shroud and life transfer. I use it as early as I can especially against packs of 3. It isn't my get out of jail free card. It is my weaken everybody opener. I can't wait to get the trait that casts enfeeble something upon death shrouding. That seems like it will be amazing!

Does anyone have a +life force generating, lower cool down or longer duration death shroud focused necro build on hand?

My guardian has hit 80, but I've hit a wall. I've got the gold for the max trait book, but haven't bought it because I don't know where I should put my points. I've been pretty happy with them spread out at only 20 points on three different lines.

I currently have 20 points in the healing power, power and virtues lines and the remaining 10 points in toughness. Some of the bonuses I've got are healing others when I dodge, ageis heals on removal, foes burn when they're blocked and 10% extra damage on foes that are burning.

My gear is mostly +power and +healing power, I use my virtues a lot for blocks, burns and heals and tend to use greatsword with either scepter+torch or sword+focus.

Any thoughts on where I should be putting my traits to best utilize my play style so far?

I think that you'll be better served to get 2 30 point skills. But, I'm still saving up for the master book for my engy, so what do I know.

Tscott wrote:

My guardian has hit 80, but I've hit a wall. I've got the gold for the max trait book, but haven't bought it because I don't know where I should put my points. I've been pretty happy with them spread out at only 20 points on three different lines.

I currently have 20 points in the healing power, power and virtues lines and the remaining 10 points in toughness. Some of the bonuses I've got are healing others when I dodge, ageis heals on removal, foes burn when they're blocked and 10% extra damage on foes that are burning.

My gear is mostly +power and +healing power, I use my virtues a lot for blocks, burns and heals and tend to use greatsword with either scepter+torch or sword+focus.

Any thoughts on where I should be putting my traits to best utilize my play style so far?

for starters i dont recommend the 2h sword unless you go down the honor tree to reduce recharge time by 20%. Way to unwieldy without it.

I recommend getting that last tier because there's few builds that cant make use of it. regardless of the tree you use.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Yep, Elites are separate. Are you doing the skill points on maps Zappa? I think I was about 32 when I got around to my first Elite, now at 47 and I have 3. Not spending any more until I get the Charrzooka.

Yes but not in all the starting zones. I may go to some of the other areas to get those points. Btw totally want a charzooka too.

fangblackbone wrote:

I am still only low level but I really love the scepter/focus necro sans pets. The stacks of bleeding, the grasping hands, the thrown scythe that damages and grants regeneration on allies, and the #3 skill that does increased damage based on the number of conditions on the foe really rocks.

But the real star of the show is death shroud and life transfer. I use it as early as I can especially against packs of 3. It isn't my get out of jail free card. It is my weaken everybody opener. I can't wait to get the trait that casts enfeeble something upon death shrouding. That seems like it will be amazing!

Does anyone have a +life force generating, lower cool down or longer duration death shroud focused necro build on hand?

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/70260-dshroud-necromancer-build/

Hope that helps. I have a necro at 28 and I've been having fun with dagger/horn (mostly for the speed boost) with a few wells. Not sure what to pick as my first elite - any suggestions? I'm aiming for charrzooka eventually.

Here's my mesmer tonight:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/ffjKi.jpg)

Then I equipped a staff

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/kJVbH.jpg)

and everything was cool.

I had been enjoying using the greatsword / sword+focus, but tonight seemed to hit a wall with it. I'm in the mid twenties and going against things that are my level or slightly higher.

So far, I've put my trait points in whichever line gives +Power, and picked the Mind Wrack damage bonus at 10 pts. I've been using the mirror image skill (two clones) and the phantasm that removes boons from foes/conditions from allies. The rest of my points have gone to the bottom line with +condition damage and +shatter skill recharge.

Any advice from any expert mesmers? Does the staff hold up? Greatsword get better? I'm thinking scepter+focus for my other weapon set, maybe. Pistol? Torch?

The latest episode of "Tales Of Tyria" has a segment (~30 mins) about the Mesmer
http://www.talesoftyria.com/tales-of-tyria/2012/10/9/tales-of-tyria-51-its-all-in-your-head.html

RipEmUp510 wrote:

The latest episode of "Tales Of Tyria" has a segment (~30 mins) about the Mesmer
http://www.talesoftyria.com/tales-of-tyria/2012/10/9/tales-of-tyria-51-its-all-in-your-head.html

Hmm, they seem to love the greatsword / sword+focus combo. Maybe I needed to level up the weapons. Or was going against too high level enemies. I was trying to get to the POI in the Destroyer Fissure cave in Kessex Hills - and that was tough for my Guardian who had outleveled that area when he reached there.

I'll have to give it another go when I have more traits and get better drops (or visit the trading post).

Tscott wrote:

Any advice from any expert mesmers? Does the staff hold up? Greatsword get better? I'm thinking scepter+focus for my other weapon set, maybe. Pistol? Torch?

I feel it largely depends on playstyle. Until reaching level 70+, I avoided the sword and used scepter/pistol and switched between greatsword and staff. Both have their uses, though I find the former better for solo, the latter for groups. Whatever the other setup is, I find the pistol a great off-hand because the phantasm it summons is quite nice, and the 5 stun is also pretty nifty (though now I've switched it up to sword/torch).

This is my current build.

I rely a lot on being able to constantly have a stream of illusions and phantasms that are constantly shattering and having my enemies constantly bleeding (due to illusions causing a lot of bleed) and confused due to my illusions/phantasms constantly dropping it on them due to shatter or dying.

Tscott wrote:

I had been enjoying using the greatsword / sword+focus, but tonight seemed to hit a wall with it. I'm in the mid twenties and going against things that are my level or slightly higher.

I've used a greatsword since my teens, and found that it has held up well so far (level 43 now). I've found that in order not to end up a corpse on a regular basis I have to be moving all the time - and specifically dodging. Once I started rolling whenever I had the energy to do so things got a lot easier - I can stay at range while I build up to three clones, and then shatter with Mind Wrack (or Confusion if it's not available).

If I can't get away (too many mobs, tight space, etc), I switch to my sword & focus and fight that way. I use the Signet of Domination (Stun) frequently as well... it's not a long stun, but it's often enough to buy me the extra time I need.

Re: Mesmers, another vote here for playing what suits you. The weapon swap feature is helpful if you want to try out a different weapon, so you can hang onto the set you know/are attached to while trying out something new in the second slot. If you're looking for advice on what worked for my mesmer in the mid 20s, that is around when I dropped the staff and decided to focus more on the greatsword. I think Mirror Blade and Phantasmal Berserker are two of the best mesmer weapon attacks around, and the greatsword itself is useful at long range but isn't helpless at close range. And the greatsword animations are also my favorite.
I use the sword+focus as my alternate set, primarily for the run speed boost on the focus. I like to mix it up in melee occasionally so the sword + focus works as a change of pace too.

For traits, the best trait you can get early on is probably Illusionist's Celerity (5 points in Illusions, makes illusion-summoning skills recharge 20% faster). Other than that, I think the stat bonuses have more of an effect than most of the traits until you hit level 40 or so. Early on an extra 50 or 100 points to your preferred stat can mean a lot. Once better traits become available and your gear starts offering larger and more kinds of stat bonuses it shifts, but by then you should have a better idea of what kind of build you want to run.
Once you hit level 40 I recommend checking out the shatter-heavy build I posted a few pages back. Shatters open up a lot more at level 40 thanks to Deceptive Evasion (Dueling trait X). I've read about and tried a few other kinds of mesmer builds but I've enjoyed the shatter style the most personally.

And if you find that you don't really care for the shatter-heavy builds there are a few traits (domination V and chaos V) that cause conditions when your clones die (rather than when you shatter them), which is nice for mesmers that want to stack conditions and don't want to micro-manage clones and shattering.

Thanks for the imput. Today was a total turnaround from yesterday. I'm still loving the staff and have tried scepter or sword with either pistol or focus as my alt set.

I'm definitely enjoying the shatters, and find I'm almost constantly hitting either F1 or F2 in battle. I also got up to level 30+ and unlocked Moa Morph and Time Warp. Haven't had much time with the second yet, but turning enemies into a bird is lots of fun.

Re: Mesmers, I'll echo the advice that Greatsword is usually best for Solo and Staff is usually the go to for Groups (against Mob Groups and while in a Group, since Chaos Storm will actually put Boons on friendlies caught in it.)

The best defensive dual wield for me is still Scepter + Sword because it gives you two skills that are Blocks, which works equally against melee attacks as well as ranged. When I find myself going up against something I can't brute force with Greatsword or kite around with Staff, I switch back to this.

Recently, I've started using Scepter + Torch for a defensive set of skills with a little more offense. The no 4 skill with Stealth + burn is useful for getting out sticky situations or when surrounded by a group of melee mobs.

I go with dual swords on my mesmer (level 42) and have done almost since I started playing her (I think I've got the sword skill cooldown reduction as a trait). In combat my tactics are very much in-and-out: Phantasmal Swordsman, Blurred Frenzy (immune to damage), Illusionary Ripost (to get a clone), evade backward and pop Illusionary Leap (another clone) and Swap when Blurred Frenzy is off cd. When I need to kite or be careful in group events I switch to a staff or greatsword.

I've found that rotation + a lot of movement is pretty resilient in PvE but I haven't tried my mesmer in sPvP or WvW and I have a hard time believing that it would be particularly successful in it.

To change the topic to rangers, I completely stumbled upon an arctodus in a shack in a cave when following a dynamic event. That pet is pretty resilient I must say. Their special is a bleed on a long cool down that doesn't seem to be noticeably effective like the regen of the sylvan hound. But they make up for it in spades by being able to take hits and save me from being downed on a few occasions.

I have switched to the short bow on my ranger with axe/torch in the offhand. Even in groups of 3, I stick with the short bow because the axe/torch will often hit stray neutral animals and turn a 1 on 3 into a 1 on 5. I find that shortbow plus burn trap is good enough for aoe and only resort to axe/torch if I am desperate or tagging multiples in big group dynamic events.

The shortbow basic attack bleeds from behind or the side. By dancing around, you can get a lot of bleed stacks on targets. The #2 poison of the shortbow helps for veterans and bosses. The #5 daze is a great ranged interrupt skill. (if on a longer cool down) And the #4 cripple also helps with rampaging veterans or bosses.

Just my 2 cents on the fun I have been having lately with the ranger that is now firmly entrenched as my #2 character. (with the necro rapidly gaining ground)

I only have a low level ranger but I prefer the short bow as well though my off-hand has been sword/torch. The short bow just seems to hit so fast I feel like I'm doing more damage. Also, since I tend to solo 99% of the time I never found myself making use of the longbows extra damage from full range. Sure, I'd get a shot off at 1200 range but then things would immediately charge me and I was running in circles fighting up close. I've also been using that same pet as my tank with some kind of spider pet for when I need to fight at range.

Really digging the Ranger with sword/torch, flame trap and spike trap. Lots of burning and bleed aoe that helps take down multiple foes.

To me the ranger's sword movement attack is much more disorienting than any of the thief movement attacks like death blossom. That is one key reason why I am not a fan of the sword for the ranger. The movement attacks for the greatsword are fine though. I can never get enough of leap-gliding several yards towards an enemy.

Speaking of greatswords, my mesmer loves hers. I don't know what the problem has been, but I suspect the biggest mistake is not going +power on all my newb characters. I just could not find a lasting relationship for the mesmer but thankfully after buying a gem card and the rest of my character slots, I can now not worry about the engineer/mesmer/elementalist all vying for one character slot. I liked greatsword, sword/pistol or sword/torch, and scepter/pistol in previous attempts to level a mesmer but it just seemed to take forever to kill something. Or in the case of sword main hand, you were just too vulnerable/squishy. That has changed for sure over the last few days. If all it has been is to pump +power from the get go, then I will have to say I am disappointed that the choices are that narrow for the professions from the start.

And also speaking of changing of hearts, my newb engineer is much more impressed with her rifle now. I liked the versatility of the pistol/pistol more in previous attempts but the play got boring and the auto attack issue with kits was frustrating. Again, thanks to the extra character slots I can play around with my blunderbuss-loving engy instead of deleting and losing hours of progress.

I am surprised I didn't bite the bullet sooner as I am going to be playing GW2 for a long time. The $25 would have been worth the 20+ hours I have lost due to deleting and recreating alts. I think the thing that pushed me over the edge is that the gem/gold conversion rate has skyrocketed meaning more gold starving of my existing characters trying to save up for a character slot. And that just lessens the fun of my warrior who is the highest level and takes the brunt of the gold starvation burden.

I just can't get the rifle to make sense on my engy, have barely touched it since about level 5.

Well blunderbuss is great fire-and-forget cone aoe because of the big bleed and quick firing. The blow-back (#4) I used to think was useless but it is great as an interrupt and knock down. The #5 skill I use as a double aoe. I fire it at my feet so that it damages the same area on take off and landing. Net shot I use like an interrupt/stun for melee enemies, it splits group pulls, and it helps with chasing runners.

You know, it is interesting because I think of the rifle as more of a short range/melee weapon. If I am sniping single targets, I just use auto-attack. But the majority of the time, I am quite comfortable with it in melee range against groups of 3. Blunderbuss/rifle-jump/blunderbuss will make quick work of groups. If you are low on health after that, then blow-back/net the remaining enemy. Heal as needed.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

I just can't get the rifle to make sense on my engy, have barely touched it since about level 5.

I use the rifle almost exclusively. Attack 1 until enemy approaches...then net, 5, blunderbuss then 4 to get some distance. Then, back to 1 and repeat.

The #5 attack for the rifle also stacks some serious vulnerability on affected targets. Use it right before #3 (blunderbuss) for some extra smack down.

Yeah in PvE, I only use rifle. (i've never even used the shield). In groups I just start dropping bombs. and run around in circles and dodge. While leveling, get a bloodshot(I haven't played for a week!) sigil for your wep. Depending on the level, it can add +5, +7 or +9 to your power for every kill up to 25 kills.

Since we were talking about Guardian builds in game today, I thought I'd share my current build here:

I've gone 30 point in Zeal(Power) and Honor(Healing), then 5 points in Valor and Virtues. My chosen skills are 2, 7, 12 in Zeal line, and 6, 9, 10 in Honor.

From those skills I'm granted:
Increases damage by 10% against burning foes.
Greatsword damage is increased by 5%.
Greatsword attacks heal you.
Aegis heals on removal.
Two-handed weapon skills recharge 20% faster.
All symbols heal allies.

Plus:
Gain aegis when your health reaches 50%.
Symbols apply vulnerability to foes.
Increases damage of symbols.
The end of your dodge roll heals nearby allies. (and self)
Deal more damage at low endurance.
Virtues now also apply the following boons: Justice: might; Resolve: regeneration; Courage: protection

I'm currently running Greatsword and Hammer. Each of those has a symbol skill. Between the symbols, dodging and greatsword attacks, I get a near constant source of heals. Plus I bring Healing Seed (a Sylvari skill) and Merciful Intervention (teleport to ally w/ lowest health and create a healing field). The other two skills I bring are Judge's Intervention (teleport and burn) and "Retreat!" (group aegis and speed boost). Another possible skill is Purging Flames (burns and removes conditions on allies) but I like the teleport for extra mobility since I'm currently all melee. As for elite skill- I guess bring what you like. I currently use Sylvari skill Take Root (summon several plant turrets), as an "Oh, crap! Get me out of this!" move when I get in trouble (which hasn't happened too much since using this).

Current stats:
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/90WAL.jpg)

And while I'm level 80, I'm far from optimal in my equipment. A lot of my armor is in the level 60 range, and my rings/accessories are mostly in the 40 lvl range - with empty upgrade slots! I even still have on the starter ring I got for pre-ordering. :O Still I'm mopping things up pretty handedly in the 70-80 zones.

I decided to give the warrior class another run and had about the same reaction I had the first time I played the class and deleted it. I was still around level 10 and I was dying over and over to a boss fight in a story mission when I discovered one little skill that changed everything. I decided to burn some points I'd been saving up and bought the health regeneration mark. Since the mark didn't tell me how much it regenerated per tick I was expecting a few hps every few seconds, which would be fairly pointless, but instead it was healing around 40 hp a tick at a point when my guy is getting hit for 7-20 points of damage. I went from barely surviving some fights to becoming mini-Wolverine where I'm ending fights at 100% health. Does this mark scale well or is it just this amazing at the early levels?

Of course, after I picked up this skill I discovered the wonderful world of warrior rifle kiting and now I feel like the class is extremely durable even when outnumbered or against boss mobs. Given what little I've seen of the class so far it seems to have a lot more in its bag of tricks than I first thought simply due to the large number of weapons they can use.

I'm up to level 65 with my mesmer, and am trying to figure out how to finish off the shatter-heavy build that I'm running.

This is how I stand so far.

I think that I want to spend at least 5 more points in Illusions for Phantasmal Hast (Illusions recharge 20% faster), but then I'm not sure if I want to finish out Illusions, Dueling, or Domination. Illusions would give me might when I shatter illusions and also allow me to shatter myself, which sounds cool except I'm not very close to the enemy frequently. Dueling doesn't seem to add very much to a shatter mesmer at all. Domination give me more damage to inactive enemies and allows me to stun when I Daze, which is pretty good.

Gear wise, I've recently changed from all +Power (primary) +Precision (secondary) to +Power (primary) and +Toughness/+Vitality (secondary). I dropped my crit rate by 3% but added a pile of armor and about 2000 health. I can't say 100% that this isn't hurting myself... but at least for solo play I feel more survivable now. I was getting very squishy for a while there.