Any zerg build for mesmer

[DylanLucas.6058]

Is there any other proper zerg build for a mesmer than Chrono with shield etc....

 

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by DylanLucas.6058

[ventress.4879]

No not really, your other option is probably Mirage with Greatsword. 

The Virtuoso utilities can do okay damage and you could run Inspiration with bladesongs just to heal. 

There are options but Chronomancer is definitely the king of Zergs much like how Druid is for Ranger. 

[godfat.2604]

I assume this is talking about WvW group play since Chronomancer with a shield is mentioned, which is the only build commonly recommended for WvW group play, even when it's more a niche that we won't want to have too many in a squad.

I believe so far the only other option is glass cannon Virtuoso, which I have been playing for quite some time now. This is the build I am running with: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?PiwAEh3llyWZWMVmLOOLZRLA-z1QYhom2DaHio3BpZIUPBqUBmOABsHeAA-w

Mantra of Concentration can be swapped for something else if you got enough stability support in your party. After Mantra got reverted back to be able to charge, this is a powerful stability skill with 15 seconds cooldown. Note that the tooltip for Power Break is wrong. Instead of granting 3 stacks, it's actually granting 5 stacks. Anet forgot they buffed it before in WvW.

My overall conclusion about Virtuoso is that, after they fixed Psychic Riposte, it becomes good from being just viable. I can much more reliably hit with Bladesong Harmony and Bladesong Sorrow. The burst if done right is pretty good, at the same time stripping quite a lot of boons. It's not at the level of Scourge or Spellbreaker, but Virtuoso's damage is much higher than Scourge now, not to mention it's mostly strong burst.

The weakness beside susceptible to conditions is, it doesn't have good melee cleave. If the squad is melee heavy, other classes might work better. This is more or less a pirate ship build.

[phokus.8934]

You can player power Chrono in zergs with little effort.  It's not the greatest but sniping a target or commander has its fun moments.

[dead.7638]

Build is gs.   Rotation is auto attack 

Edited March 23, 2023 by dead.7638

[Mell.4873]

4 hours ago, dead.7638 said:

Build is gs.   Rotation is auto attack 

The Mirage Greatsword Ambush it pretty strong too. Good pick for anyone struggling to use the single dodge.

[JonasV.4209]

On 3/23/2023 at 4:19 AM, godfat.2604 said:

I assume this is talking about WvW group play since Chronomancer with a shield is mentioned, which is the only build commonly recommended for WvW group play, even when it's more a niche that we won't want to have too many in a squad.

I believe so far the only other option is glass cannon Virtuoso, which I have been playing for quite some time now. This is the build I am running with: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?PiwAEh3llyWZWMVmLOOLZRLA-z1QYhom2DaHio3BpZIUPBqUBmOABsHeAA-w

Thanks a lot for this.

I built it out using exotic pieces the other day on a whim because I was getting tired of Power GS/Bow Zerker and am having a blast with it.  Really fun in small group combat too, not just zerg, able to secure kills with all the cripple/imobil and loads of burst.  I swapped out Rain of Swords for Sword of Decimation instead and have gotten some mileage out of the mass imobil when the deathball engages.  Multi-access to distortion, aegis, and block helps a lot with survival and makes the all Zerk/Assassin not feel as squishy imo.  My one complaint is that it doesn't stock blades very well outside of Blade Renewal.  Might play around with some of the talent, but overall, really fun. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by JonasV.4209

[godfat.2604]

2 hours ago, JonasV.4209 said:

My one complaint is that it doesn't stock blades very well outside of Blade Renewal.  Might play around with some of the talent, but overall, really fun. 

Glad that you like it. I played Berserker a bit and it’s really not my taste. Very boring to me. Comparing to Virtuoso, I need to react much faster which is more fun to me.

Rain of Sword is not good in small scale, so replacing it makes sense to me. When I was playing in smaller scale, Rain of Sword was mostly used on cleaving the down, because they can’t move.

For stocking blades, Psychic Riposte should be the main source. I don’t think anything else will work at all. You certainly need the unblockable effects as well. This is something that I think Anet should tweak. For example, doubling clones/blades generated from the weapons, and dagger is like it’ll never hit, which needs rework. I still run dagger but use it at point blank, or again, cleaving down. You can also consider sword which gives you a leap, useful for mobility.

[ventress.4879]

You can never underestimate damage immunity's during a Zerg Clash. 

Being able to stay behind to finish someone so you can rally your fellow Zerg members is invaluable. Sometimes you go the wrong way and you need to get back into the Zerg ball. There are many amazing uses to Mesmer currently not to mention Temporal Curtain. 

[JonasV.4209]

9 hours ago, godfat.2604 said:

For stocking blades, Psychic Riposte should be the main source. I don’t think anything else will work at all. You certainly need the unblockable effects as well. This is something that I think Anet should tweak.

Yeah, I think you are right.   I was considering the auto-stocking trait, but Psychic Riposte is too important. 

The only thing that might work would be Bountiful Blades in Domination, but I don't know if the extra phantasms will decay into 2 blades or just the standard 1. 

Part of it is probably my own neurotic brain after playing Condi Virt in PvE and being barely able to burn blades as fast as I stock them.  Just something I'll have to get used to.

Edited April 17, 2023 by JonasV.4209

[godfat.2604]

2 hours ago, JonasV.4209 said:

The only thing that might work would be Bountiful Blades in Domination, but I don't know if the extra phantasms will decay into 2 blades or just the standard 1. 

I do not think this will work in large scale because as far as I know, if phantasms cannot complete their attacks, they cannot be converted into clones thus cannot be converted into blades, and of course phantasms die under 0.5 seconds before they can even start performing their attacks in large scale. It might work in smaller scale though.

2 hours ago, JonasV.4209 said:

Part of it is probably my own neurotic brain after playing Condi Virt in PvE and being barely able to burn blades as fast as I stock them.  Just something I'll have to get used to.

Yeah, I think the balance is pretty unbalanced that it's clearly balanced around PvE and they just let the balance of the rest rot. The other way to slightly improve blade generations might be changing Psychic Riposte to generate 2 blades at a time, and reduce cooldown to 1.5 seconds. This will make it generate 4 blades every 3 seconds, slightly more than the  current 3 blades every 3 seconds, at the cost of relying more on evading and/or blocking.

[chripsy.1027]

They should give Phantasms invulnerability until they have finished their attacks. 

[godfat.2604]

4 hours ago, chripsy.1027 said:

They should give Phantasms invulnerability until they have finished their attacks. 

There used to have a trait similar to that, introduced on 2015-06-23 and removed on 2018-02-06 (earliest version in this page): https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Protected_Phantasms/history (I can't recall prior to that)

1 second is likely not enough to fully finish their attacks, but it's still something. Of course, even with that Mesmer back then was still just a Veil or Portal bot. After it's nerfed into Aegis then it's completely useless in large scale, and now we don't even have Aegis for Phantasms.

Similarly, Ranger pets and Renegade Kalla summons all have the same issue. I doubt Anet would ever care to address it. I do welcome surprises though, for sure.

[JonasV.4209]

Having played this Virt build some more over the last week I can say I'm probably not going back to my GS/Bow Zerker for wuvwuv anytime soon.  I tried to play it last night and rapidly became frustrated with the usual failings - can't maintain / lose Berserk if the other group pulls back and we don't chase, zero defenses outside of the deathball even with a decent amount of Vit/Tough, clunky rotation, long downtime when Berserk is on cooldown.  Basically feel like a banner-bot 50% of the time and the other 50% is spamming Scorched Earth.

By comparison the pZirt build above has way better defense with multi-Distortion (multiple times this has saved me when most of the zerg gets rolled), Aegis and Block.  Better chase and ability to secure kills with focus 4 and a combination of GS3 and Sword of Decimation (personal choice on that one). It feels like the damage is better too, especially since everything can be done at 1200 range and the burst is significantly better. 

All in all, I'm really enjoying it.  If you want to give something outside the MetaBattle WvW "Meta" builds a try this one is a lot of fun and I find it very effective too.

Edited April 23, 2023 by JonasV.4209