[Archive] Mimic Boonshare Guide

[expandas.7051]

Circa April 2017 after the changes to Signet of Inspiration

Hey guys. I've spent the last couple of months playing a lot of large-scale WvW and GvG. It's no secret that a lot of folks are frustrated right now and there's a sense of pessimism through the community. In light of this, I just wanted to keep things positive and share some awesome things you can do with Mimic. This is a frontline boonshare build, so if that's not your thing I understand and you can read something else. But if you're curious and want to learn more I recommend paying a visit to the wiki and brushing up on skill mechanics and cooldowns. Compared to other support roles such as Druid or Tempest that are more effective at active sustain and reacting to teammates under pressure, this build is more about passive sustain and making proactive decisions for your team.

Recommended Reading on the Wiki

• Mimic
• Signet of Inspiration
• Illusionary Inspiration
• Continuum Split

Just as a background for folks that might not be as familiar with the WvW scene, the majority of Mesmer builds you see out there tend to focus either on solo/small-scale roaming or large-scale utility for the zerg, e.g., "veil-bots". Back when the specialization rework was released the summer before HoT, the introduction of Illusionary Inspiration opened the door for a viable third option, the frontline boonshare Mesmer. With HoT bringing the Chronomancer elite spec and the shield offhand, everything was in place for guilds to begin theorycrafting and implementing boonshare into their team compositions.

Here's the build that we'll be working with: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseWl0nhq0YBawPNQtGLEHV9l+pl6ZFcBfmZAkALEA-T1xHQBwT9HwpPAgK/W3+DPUJY+eCAA4UAIKgMD-w

Chaos/Inspiration/Chrono is a fairly popular and forgiving trait setup. It doesn't require the timings and group training that Domination/Inspiration/Chrono uses, and has a lower barrier to entry with respect to beginners and gearing. Now, if you've been keeping up the patches, you know that Signet of Inspiration received a major overhaul fall 2016. They essentially changed certain boons from stacking in intensity to stacking in duration, effectively eliminating prebuffing and nerfing might/stability stacking. However, that same change buffed resistance and quickness application by letting the signet use the Mesmer's boon duration. That's huge.

The biggest shortcoming for Chaos boonshare has always been not doing enough. Your Signets have 30s cooldowns which means you're designed to win the endurance race, not the fight that's over in 20s after the first push. The addition of Mimic takes care of this weakness. It gives you the "burst sustain" your team needs to survive. When you factor in signet changes, one properly trained Mesmer now has the carry potential to win entire fights for his team. Let's see how it's done.

Video Tutorials and Gameplay

So what's going on here? I'm pumping out six casts of Signet of Inspiration to buff my team. In order to pull this off, you'll want to start in sword then swap to staff for sigil proc. Activate continuum split during the after-cast of Warlock to get Illusionary Inspiration and the illusion for CS duration. Time Warp, signet, then Mimic. Your skills will reset after CS ends and you'll still have Echo on your buff bar. Use your shatter skills during CS for Inspiring Distortion and boon generation. When you revert back, you should be able to finish your rotation without getting interrupted. Weapon swap for another sigil proc before casting the last two signets.

Generating illusions before entering Continuum Split is paramount to having enough time to get through your rotation. Quickness helps a great deal, so make sure you're shattering or opening with Tides of Time. In the middle of a zerg fight, it can be too risky to cast everything without getting cut off early. You can mitigate this by using Distortion for the rift, leaving either Signet of Inspiration or Mimic out of the rotation, using Phase Retreat for an extra illusion, or by simply having better positioning.

One thing I forgot to mention is that you don't necessarily need 66% boon duration in order to make these boonshare builds work. If you're using Chaos, you will always have Chaotic Persistence. That can really add up! If you're running full Minstrel's, you're pretty close to capping out on boon duration (assuming sigil, nourishment, CP) before you even factor in the runes. One really nice option for is to use Revenant runes. The 10s ICD lines up well with your mantra heal, and it allows you to share resistance reliably between Continuum Split rotations.

You can also take this build into the healing route by doubling down on Restorative Mantras and picking up Mantra of Pain instead of Mantra of Concentration. You can optimize for healing by picking up healing nourishment and relevant runes/sigils. The trick to playing this variant well is to cover your long mantra cast times with stability, and the trick to doing that is making sure you're getting sigil proc for the extra boon duration. You'll really notice the difference in the stability uptime from your shatters, and it's easy to follow up those shatters with one of your signets for the group.

If you're having difficulty surviving, slow down, practice your moves and review your gameplay. Personal alacrity uptime with this build is quite a bit lower than a shatter or PvE build so the little things start to matter. Practice kiting with Illusionary Leap and Phase Retreat. Take advantage of all evade frames from Blurred Frenzy even if it visually appears otherwise because you have quickness. If you need to use Echo of Memory make sure you actually land a block, don't panic and avoid wasting Deja Vu.

Let me know what you guys think. Feedback appreciated!

Build thread on Metabattle: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Chronomancer_-_Support_ChronoDiscussion thread on old Mesmer forums: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/professions/mesmer/Mimic-Boonshare-Guide/Discussion thread on old WvW forums: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/wuv/Mimic-Boonshare-Guide-for-Mesmer/Gameplay Videos:

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[OriOri.8724]

Thank you for crossposting this. I'm sure a lot of players have either forgotten it or never knew this guide existed before, and its invaluable for them.