13 replies to this topic

[Cheshire1985]

Just toying around trying to figure out a decent build to utilize Staff, scepter/focus.  Came up with this build with a heavy phantasm focus.  What do you guys think?

http://www.gw2build....focus-4642.html

Edited by Cheshire1985, 24 August 2012 - 04:36 PM.

[Taywyn]

Looks like it'll be fun to play. Better be on your toes though, looks a bit squishy! I had a lot of fun in the stress test on the 21st with a crit/condition build. I think that's the best part of the Mesmer. So many ways to build them so they can be fun and effective. It all just depends on how you like to play.

[Zorian51]

Squishy as your armor is low but you have to get rid of something for precision. In the build I'm doing I'm just skipping crit and building toughness vitality with high power for my Mesmer.  Being able to outlast and having phantasms up that do high damage without crit is enough for me. Its a playstyle preference thought.

Should work well for a strong power crit build. If you want another variation without crit that makes you tankier you can try this or a variation of it.

Phantasms Build Tanky

[Cheshire1985]

oh sweet, I like the looks of that build better.  Thanks!

[Zorian51]

Cheshire1985, on 24 August 2012 - 05:05 PM, said:

oh sweet, I like the looks of that build better.  Thanks!

You could swap staff out for Scepter/Sword or Greatsword if you wanted. I lean more towards Staff/Scepter as a personal preference but they all have good uses.

[Cheshire1985]

I prefer staff and scepter too and after seeing the focus' temporal curtain ability, it seems like too much fun to pass up xP

Edited by Cheshire1985, 24 August 2012 - 05:16 PM.

[Taywyn]

Zorian51, on 24 August 2012 - 04:59 PM, said:

Squishy as your armor is low but you have to get rid of something for precision. In the build I'm doing I'm just skipping crit and building toughness vitality with high power for my Mesmer.  Being able to outlast and having phantasms up that do high damage without crit is enough for me. Its a playstyle preference thought.

Should work well for a strong power crit build. If you want another variation without crit that makes you tankier you can try this or a variation of it.

Phantasms Build Tanky

I really like the look of this build, but I have a question for you. This looks like more of a power/phantasm/tank build than a condition tank build, so why did you go with the staff instead of the great-sword? Wouldn't great-sword get more use from all those phantasm traits and power?

Edited by Taywyn, 24 August 2012 - 05:17 PM.

[Zorian51]

Staff is a multi purpose weapon really. Things like daze in chaos storm and the boons you get from Chaos Armor are two skills that are going to be good regardless of the build. Phase retreat is also a good combo with Chaos Storm for more protection/regeneration. Sure staff does conditions and they won't do as much as they would with a condition build but they still hurt. I also find the clones from Staff way more useful then clones from most other weapons as:

They are easy to make with Phase Retreats low cooldown and they give you boons and conditions. The boons are underrated by alot of players... the might from the weapon switch also helps this as its going to improve both my condition and power damage. Add in some boons from winds of chaos and some extra damage from conditions it does quite a few things.

Also one of the biggest aspects is I like Ranged Phantasms as they don't die nearly as quick. IDualist is one of them. IWarlock is strong in a power build. It does its damage based off power so it hits hard even when the enemy has few to none conditions. Add in conditions to the mix and its hitting even harder.

It hits 10% harder for each condition on an enemy. If you get a few conditions off on an enemy its going to hurt since the base is off power still and you're adding 10/20/30% damage to that.

Its just a good weapon in almost any build its defensive the clones do well and the Illusion hits hard.

Greatsword is strong for power builds as well as it does good damage but I don't care for the phantasm as much. Its on the lower end of the damage scale. The upside to it is that its AOE and cripples. I just find the staff Warlock more useful as I like to single target more then AOE.

Hopefully that helps.

I feel Scepter and Greatsword are still excellent choices for another weapon.

Also, remember vuln is one of the conditions we apply with staff which helps our power out as well. The rest is just extra damage.

Edited by Zorian51, 24 August 2012 - 05:24 PM.

[Taywyn]

Thank you for explaining that. Now I feel pretty stupid because I totally forgot Warlock was a phantasm. I'm going to save this link and try this build myself sometime.  

[Zorian51]

Taywyn, on 24 August 2012 - 05:33 PM, said:

Thank you for explaining that. Now I feel pretty stupid because I totally forgot Warlock was a phantasm. I'm going to save this link and try this build myself sometime.  

Anytime I've been working with it as I love Phantasms since BWE3. I also have a condition build I made that has high toughness but no extra HP and relies on Crit/Condtion Damage and high toughness for substain. The only bad part of the build is the low HP but it has high amounts of confusion that last 50% longer then normal and other condtions that can be applied a few ways.

[Cymb]

Great thread, I've just switched over to a phantasm build and am having a lot of fun with it.  I run a gs/staff combo, I like the AOE of the gs and the pushback,  I hang onto the staff for a few reasons.  As you see Zorian listed a bunch of good reasons to use it and maybe this statement "The boons are underrated by alot of players" covers this, but it is very true.  I usually send in 2 phantasms and a clone or 3 phantasms depending on traits and then cast chaos storm, this provides my phantasms with buffs while debuffing the target as well and after that you can pretty much sit and watch while you create a phantasm each time one dies.

not saying it's the best play style, but I have fun with it.

[SpelignErrir]

If you're going to use staff often, you'll want illusionary elasticity for an extra bounce. This means you hit an extra target, or in 1v1 fights, you deal double the damage as normal. Your clone's staff attacks bounce more too, so they apply more boons/conditions as well.

20 points in illusions, you're gimping any staff build by not taking it

[solariz]

Did you actually tried the difference of going for +Power instead of going for +ConditionDamage ?

[Angelus359]

power staff builds are not actually weak... They're just not as truck-heavy hitting as great sword builds