Www Gearing advice

[trooper.2650]

Now that the season is over, I was experimenting in wvw and, like I always do, I never go for the meta build and try out different builds.

I was having kind of fun running axe /torch /staff with a condi/lock build, chaos, domination and Mirage. The fight I lost, I blamed the gear, for I was running viper that is what I use in pve and does not suit this play style.

What do you think the best gear would be if I wanted to go with a build that looks like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAnfWnsnB1ohlpBGMDMMjlTDjMAsACK+LwKYG0cHMduBA-w

[Jace al Thor.6745]

Full viper is obviously squishy so you could add in some trailblazer until you’re at a comfortable armor/health level.

[Dawdler.8521]

@Jace al Thor.6745 said:Full viper is obviously squishy so you could add in some trailblazer until you’re at a comfortable armor/health level.Hahaha full viper will get you instakilled in WvW against anyone with half a brain.

But tbh, I would say go with whatever you want. With those weapons it wont be the gear combo that holds you back - it will be the speed at which you can get things done. You are locked to traveler/speed runes unless you want a grandma in a wheelchair to be able to kite you which means a condi mirage can never reach its full potential. To work around it you need either boon duration which doesnt work so well when going condi or combo signet+focus which means a crappy weapon and a crappy skill. It will also get worse the more enemies you meet and boy will it get worse fast because the staff is a slower than watching paint dry when it comes to actually putting damage downrange. An axe/staff mesmer no matter the build is essentially worthless to a smallscale group because it forces them into melee where enemy AoE condis will be faaaaaar stronger than mesmer (ie condi scourge). Its a dead weight that can be replaced with pretty much anything that offer either better melee or better support (such as either an immortal druid or an immortal spellbreaker).

But hey dont let that discourage you op. If you find it fun well I think everyone but me is a wierdo anyway lol.

[Jace al Thor.6745]

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@Jace al Thor.6745 said:Full viper is obviously squishy so you could add in some trailblazer until you’re at a comfortable armor/health level.Hahaha full viper will get you instakilled in WvW against anyone with half a brain.

But tbh, I would say go with whatever you want. With those weapons it wont be the gear combo that holds you back - it will be the speed at which you can get things done. You are locked to traveler/speed runes unless you want a grandma in a wheelchair to be able to kite you which means a condi mirage can never reach its full potential. To work around it you need either boon duration which doesnt work so well when going condi or combo signet+focus which means a crappy weapon and a crappy skill. It will also get worse the more enemies you meet and boy will it get worse fast because the staff is a slower than watching paint dry when it comes to actually putting damage downrange. An axe/staff mesmer no matter the build is essentially worthless to a smallscale group because it forces them into melee where enemy AoE condis will be faaaaaar stronger than mesmer (ie condi scourge). Its a dead weight that can be replaced with pretty much anything that offer either better melee or better support (such as either an immortal druid or an immortal spellbreaker).

But hey dont let that discourage you op. If you find it fun well I think everyone but me is a wierdo anyway lol.

Oh yeah. Hence the suggestion to add trailblazer for defensive stats.The biggest problem i see is what the OP is wanting to achieve. The build itself isn’t going to put out an abundance of conditions. Chaotic Interuption is rng and IMO won’t help with steady condition pressure outside a 1v1. The torment on axe is nice but outside torment from ax and burn from torch there’s not going to be any pressure. If the build were to drop domination and pick up dueling for bleed on crit and blind or illusions for torment on shatter there would be more pressure. There are plenty of hybrid builds being ran but they focus on damage not interupts. The build is good, again imo, for 1v1s and flipping camps sentries. Otherwise anyway with stability, stun breaks, and condi clear is going to ran over you.

If I were to today something like this I’d want to go either full power or full condi so I could capitalize on one or the other. Trying to split the damage three ways(in a sense) limits its output.

[trooper.2650]

Hey guys, thank you very much. This kind of feedback is exactly what I was looking for :)@Dawdler.8521 You are absolutly right. I feel the staff is too slow and axe forces you to go melee. But first I want to say that I dont care about big group fights.

Thing is I do not want to go full power/GS usual build which I find effective, yes, but boring. Lockdown builds suit it, I know it. But I wanted something that lasts, sort of attrition build which is, at the same time, a pain to fight against. I met few holo, mirage and thieves, So much damage and all, but when you freeze them in place with a nice interrupt (CI), well they all chicken out, go defensive, run, and you just have to wait when they come out of that invulnerable state and finish them off.But I noticed that CI on its own is not enough and to capitalize the succesfull interrupt I needed something more, hence I picked domination for powerblock.

Anyway, staff may be slow but it serves the purpouse: it may throws in some random interrupts. If it does not interrupt, confounding suggestions can still trigger. In middle/close range is excellent and provides room for breathing. It's good in attrition fights.

Running dueling instead of domination would be more ideal, but I do not like easy things :-)

@Jace al Thor.6745 I will try few pieces of trailblazer, change things here and there and see how it goes. I'll let you know ;)

[Dawdler.8521]

@"trooper.2650" said:But first I want to say that I dont care about big group fights.I wasnt really talking about "big group fights", more like anything beyond solo. And even solo... Well I have met many such chronos/mirages on my own power mirage and the easiest way to describe the common scenario is pretty much this:

Enemy condi mesmer approach.I start zapping him with greatsword.Enemy condi mesmer is below 50% hp before he is even close enough to start ramping up condis.

Does this mean he will loose the fight? Not necessarily, there are plenty of good mesmers and torment/confusion can have quite the bite for the unprepared. But the only way he will win is pretty much by sustain and damage mitigation in order to get close, ie full trailblazers. Now imagine if I had a buddy and still just one enemy, ie the most common scenario in WvW you will ever come across. That's what I mean by it get worse fast.

But hey try it and see what happens. You already got everything anyway. It's not like you got anything to loose and you dont need to explain the build choices to us, it's all sound. I just know when I tried something similar it was inflexible and infuriating. I prefer builds that do decent in solo, smallscale and zerging all at the same time rather than trying to slot a square peg in a round hole every time I go around a corner in the ever shifting landscape of WvW. PvP is dead simple in comparison.

[Arlette.9684]

I’m looking at this build, and I just don’t understand why if you trait for all the interrupts, you run axe over sword. With the traits you have now, sword full power is best, throw some settler/knight mix to get a touch of toughness, I run this on my power setup with settler amulet, captain and knight rings, marauder armor FTW. You can roll with the staff as a purely defensive/utility weapon and burst with sword.

@Jace al Thor.6745 I see you took one from my play book :wink:

[yiksing.9432]

Get your raw armor to at least 2400, I tried full grieving with celestial trinkets, it's too squishy to survive a huge combo hit. Swapping it to 2400 armor helped a lot

[trooper.2650]

@Arlette.9684 said:I’m looking at this build, and I just don’t understand why if you trait for all the interrupts, you run axe over sword. With the traits you have now, sword full power is best, throw some settler/knight mix to get a touch of toughness, I run this on my power setup with settler amulet, captain and knight rings, marauder armor FTW. You can roll with the staff as a purely defensive/utility weapon and burst with sword.

@Jace al Thor.6745 I see you took one from my play book :wink:

I don't like sword much. I defenitely prefer the axe feeling. The gear you suggest is purely power based. I would prefer either a more hybrid or condi based gear. I know domination tree has little to do with condis. Yet...

@yiksing.9432 thanks. I'll try that as soon as I have the time to log

[Jace al Thor.6745]

@trooper.2650 said:

@Arlette.9684 said:I’m looking at this build, and I just don’t understand why if you trait for all the interrupts, you run axe over sword. With the traits you have now, sword full power is best, throw some settler/knight mix to get a touch of toughness, I run this on my power setup with settler amulet, captain and knight rings, marauder armor FTW. You can roll with the staff as a purely defensive/utility weapon and burst with sword.

@Jace al Thor.6745 I see you took one from my play book :wink:

I don't like sword much. I defenitely prefer the axe feeling. The gear you suggest is purely power based. I would prefer either a more hybrid or condi based gear. I know domination tree has little to do with condis. Yet...

@yiksing.9432 thanks. I'll try that as soon as I have the time to log

But for what you are wanting to accomplish as far as interupts sword is hands down better. But axe has better condi application. This is where I think you are putting yourself into a corner by spreading yourself too thin. I would pick either condi interupt or Power interupt. You say you want condi so I would drop the vipers for the most part and pick up trailblazers. Since the confusion nerf our best conditions are burn(limited application) and torment from ax and shatters. The rest are inconsequential unless running dueling for bleeds.

Ultimately do what makes you happy but I would get armor to 2500, power 2k plus, crit chance to hover around 30% or better, 18k health, and condi to be 1k or better.I’d drop Dom and pick up illusions for torment shatter or dueling for DE, bleeds on crit, and blind on shatter.

[trooper.2650]

@Jace al Thor.6745 said:

@trooper.2650 said:

@Arlette.9684 said:I’m looking at this build, and I just don’t understand why if you trait for all the interrupts, you run axe over sword. With the traits you have now, sword full power is best, throw some settler/knight mix to get a touch of toughness, I run this on my power setup with settler amulet, captain and knight rings, marauder armor FTW. You can roll with the staff as a purely defensive/utility weapon and burst with sword.

@Jace al Thor.6745 I see you took one from my play book :wink:

I don't like sword much. I defenitely prefer the axe feeling. The gear you suggest is purely power based. I would prefer either a more hybrid or condi based gear. I know domination tree has little to do with condis. Yet...

@yiksing.9432 thanks. I'll try that as soon as I have the time to log

But for what you are wanting to accomplish as far as interupts sword is hands down better. But axe has better condi application. This is where I think you are putting yourself into a corner by spreading yourself too thin. I would pick either condi interupt or Power interupt. You say you want condi so I would drop the vipers for the most part and pick up trailblazers. Since the confusion nerf our best conditions are burn(limited application) and torment from ax and shatters. The rest are inconsequential unless running dueling for bleeds.

Ultimately do what makes you happy but I would get armor to 2500, power 2k plus, crit chance to hover around 30% or better, 18k health, and condi to be 1k or better.I’d drop Dom and pick up illusions for torment shatter or dueling for DE, bleeds on crit, and blind on shatter.

These are really good tips, thank you. I have to say that myself too, have thought about dropping Dom.The reason I am not letting it go yet, is because I want interrupts to be punishing. Say you manage a crucial heal interrupt and don't have Dom. and only Ci... The immobilize will not guarantee you a win whereas power block...

This is all theory crafting and I won't be able to take a direction until I have time to fully test the various options. But this won't be till tomorrow. Till then, thank you for the inputs :)

[Curunen.8729]

Not sure how useful torch is for interrupt like that - if wanting to go Dom/Chaos/Mirage, might be better to go sword/sword + staff with IH for sword clone dazes. And then go primarily power/tanky gear.

[Jace al Thor.6745]

@Curunen.8729 said:Not sure how useful torch is for interrupt like that - if wanting to go Dom/Chaos/Mirage, might be better to go sword/sword + staff with IH for sword clone dazes. And then go primarily power/tanky gear.

Torch has an AoE interupt so it can be good. Emphasis on the can though.

[Curunen.8729]

@Jace al Thor.6745 said:

@Curunen.8729 said:Not sure how useful torch is for interrupt like that - if wanting to go Dom/Chaos/Mirage, might be better to go sword/sword + staff with IH for sword clone dazes. And then go primarily power/tanky gear.

Torch has an AoE interupt so it can be good. Emphasis on the can though.

Oh lol, I forgot about the new iMage with its daze! xD

Funny considering I've used it for that purpose! :o

[Jace al Thor.6745]

@Curunen.8729 said:

@Jace al Thor.6745 said:

@Curunen.8729 said:Not sure how useful torch is for interrupt like that - if wanting to go Dom/Chaos/Mirage, might be better to go sword/sword + staff with IH for sword clone dazes. And then go primarily power/tanky gear.

Torch has an AoE interupt so it can be good. Emphasis on the can though.

Oh lol, I forgot about the new iMage with its daze! xD

Funny considering I've used it for that purpose! :o

Lol we all have our moments XDIt’s easily avoidable though and I think it’s the least of the OP’s concern.

[ulchanar.4309]

How about going for celestial armour to combine with viper/trailblazer weapons/trinkets for a hybrid build or with berserker/knight/marauder for power? Will that work? Ascended trinkets are cheap and you'll use different weapons for the builds anyway, but having two different armour sets is expensive.

[trooper.2650]

Hey guys, thank you for the feedback. I guess you were all wondering how this crazy project turned out :-DWell, I must say that I 100% agree with what apharma.3741 says in the other post (about interrupts traits). As soon as you switch from CI in Chaos to PB in domination you see a definite improvement in the game flow. CI needs a big overhaul if Anet wants it to stay updated with the game (like so many other traits, to be honest)

I have switched the focus of this build to suit me better, and I am now running a signet condirupt dom/dueling build, with high emphasis on bleeds. Here is the link:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAna8fnsICNohlpBWoBMMjFVDz/A+Arglfgjz2gMAMC2JA-jZRAABecSACc/hyKDg+RAAgHAAA

Being wvw expensive, I have been testing it mainly in pvp using rabid amulet and mad king runes. It works wonders. Does it work in any situation? Probably not, but which build does?

I already know some people will not like dropping EM for Dune Cloak, but the incoming nerf to EM will make the switch less painful (on top of that I never use EM anyway. I always preferred IH, but due to the synergy with bleeds, DC is almost mandatory).The axe/pistol combo gets me up to 30/36 bleeds in few seconds, plus decent stacks of torment and a bit of confusion too (not counting the ravens on top of all that).

Now, I started working on the wvw gear (where sometimes I switch torch for focus, for mobility). I know rabid works, so it’s just a matter of finding the right balance.

I have recorded some clips, and show you some when possible.If you have any criticism to the build please, feel free to write it.

PS: krait runes works too but I prefer more power than having more condi damage. What do you say?