Condi Mesmer / Chrono / Mirage for WvW... Still Workable???

[Redleaf.4759]

So... I came back after almost a year, and heard that Condi builds are dead since 2 patches ago...

If I still want to play as Condi in WvW (zerg fight) as Mesmer / Chrono / Mirage , any suggestions on a guide I can follow?

Thanks.

[Dawdler.8521]

Its "workable" in the same sense any condi build is (ie strong vs people that dont bring condi cleanse), however you will get kicked from any organized zerg for running anything other than minstrel chrono boonshare (yes, even mirages get shunned). The meta today is otherwise power/hybrid. Condi is too ineffective against organized groups. Dont have any guides, sorry.

[Redleaf.4759]

@"Dawdler.8521" said:Its "workable" in the same sense any condi build is (ie strong vs people that dont bring condi cleanse), however you will get kicked from any organized zerg for running anything other than minstrel chrono boonshare (yes, even mirages get shunned). The meta today is otherwise power/hybrid. Condi is too ineffective against organized groups. Dont have any guides, sorry.

Thanks for the reply. Guess I will stick with Marauder / Berserker Chrono.

[MinervaPiton.2097]

If you are in a guild, most likely they will ask you to run one of the "guild builds" which are the same meta builds that you see in metabattle. If you like to roam, people now prefer hybrid or power; I run hybrid with axe/t-p and staff, sometimes GS, depending of the "mood" :)

Both have advantages and disadvantages, a REALLY GOOD mirage on power could be deadly and they will try to burst kill you, but if that fails, the continuous smaller burst and damage over time from hybrid normally will succeed. Also it will depend of your playstyle, I like the "thick" of the combat instead of engaging and disengaging like power normally does.

There are many open squads that don't really care much if you run meta or not, they care more that you help build when taking keeps, towers, etc.

My advise, play what you enjoy and don't be forced to play something just because someones says so, this applies to any mode :)

[whoknocks.4935]

@"MinervaPiton.2097" said:If you are in a guild, most likely they will ask you to run one of the "guild builds" which are the same meta builds that you see in metabattle. If you like to roam, people now prefer hybrid or power; I run hybrid with axe/t-p and staff, sometimes GS, depending of the "mood" :)

Both have advantages and disadvantages, a REALLY GOOD mirage on power could be deadly and they will try to burst kill you, but if that fails, the continuous smaller burst and damage over time from hybrid normally will succeed. Also it will depend of your playstyle, I like the "thick" of the combat instead of engaging and disengaging like power normally does.

There are many open squads that don't really care much if you run meta or not, they care more that you help build when taking keeps, towers, etc.

My advise, play what you enjoy and don't be forced to play something just because someones says so, this applies to any mode :)

Playing full(only) power needs a lot of precision and skill usage, if you wanna become good at it you should always avoid to reset the fight, lot of bad players do that (in an outnumbered scenario you can reset and stay alive for example if you get ganked 1vs2 or 1vs3 or more, but if you reset the fight in a 1vs1 you are a bad player in my opinion, kiting and using line of sight makes you a good player).Against bad players you can use all your burst cds and you will win no problem, against better players you can't afford to spam all the burst at once or you will get punished insanely, this is true especially in power mirage, I saw lot of mirages using blink too offensively, they failed completely the burst and got eliminated 1 second after, against good players it's better to save blink as a stunbreak kiting defensive tool and only use it when you have the upper hand on the fight, or to deny the kite of your opponent.Hybrid is probably stronger than full power or full condi because you can counter almost any build, if a build is strong against condis, you have the power, if a build it's good against power, you have condis.In terms of difficulty a full condi mirage (especially dire or trailblazer stats) is usually the noob friendly mode, people new to mesmer start with it to learn mechanic and what not, but usually the good ones switch to power or hybrid, full condi is really stupidly easy and rewarding to play, getting kills with it doesn't even make you satisfied.

He should play what he likes in the end like you said :)

[EremiteAngel.9765]

@whoknocks.4935 said:

@"MinervaPiton.2097" said:If you are in a guild, most likely they will ask you to run one of the "guild builds" which are the same meta builds that you see in metabattle. If you like to roam, people now prefer hybrid or power; I run hybrid with axe/t-p and staff, sometimes GS, depending of the "mood" :)

Both have advantages and disadvantages, a REALLY GOOD mirage on power could be deadly and they will try to burst kill you, but if that fails, the continuous smaller burst and damage over time from hybrid normally will succeed. Also it will depend of your playstyle, I like the "thick" of the combat instead of engaging and disengaging like power normally does.

There are many open squads that don't really care much if you run meta or not, they care more that you help build when taking keeps, towers, etc.

My advise, play what you enjoy and don't be forced to play something just because someones says so, this applies to any mode :)

Playing full(only) power needs a lot of precision and skill usage, if you wanna become good at it you should always avoid to reset the fight, lot of bad players do that (in an outnumbered scenario you can reset and stay alive for example if you get ganked 1vs2 or 1vs3 or more, but if you reset the fight in a 1vs1 you are a bad player in my opinion, kiting and using line of sight makes you a good player).Against bad players you can use all your burst cds and you will win no problem, against better players you can't afford to spam all the burst at once or you will get punished insanely, this is true especially in power mirage, I saw lot of mirages using blink too offensively, they failed completely the burst and got eliminated 1 second after, against good players it's better to save blink as a stunbreak kiting defensive tool and only use it when you have the upper hand on the fight, or to deny the kite of your opponent.Hybrid is probably stronger than full power or full condi because you can counter almost any build, if a build is strong against condis, you have the power, if a build it's good against power, you have condis.In terms of difficulty a full condi mirage (especially dire or trailblazer stats) is usually the noob friendly mode, people new to mesmer start with it to learn mechanic and what not, but usually the good ones switch to power or hybrid, full condi is really stupidly easy and rewarding to play, getting kills with it doesn't even make you satisfied.

He should play what he likes in the end like you said :)

Great post and I liked your view on why a hybrid build is superior in handling a larger variety of enemy builds.

However this also shows how strong Mirage is in both power and condi aspects, which makes hybrid builds exceptionally effective. Because even when you trade out power, precision, ferocity or condi, the overall damage dished out is still high enough to overwhelm sustain builds. With the exception of perhaps a well played boon beast or weaver.

This is something that not many other classes can boast.I'm not asking for nerfs, (because my favoured necro has a rather even chance in fights against Mirages currently heh) but rather that I would love to see this hybrid choice extended to all the other classes to have better build variety and more unpredictability when roaming.

Currently when I see a warrior or engineer for example, I instantly know they are power builds. Revenants and thieves are also largely the same as above though I've seen one effective hybrid renegade roamer recently. I could say the same for rangers and guardians. Exceptions being necro and elementalists who have effective hybrid builds as well.

But all things considered, mesmer has the most unpredictability as a foe as they are equally deadly going power, condi or hybrid. This is something I hope can be extended to all classes.

[Richard Marcinko.5132]

After today's massive Nerf Hammer the answer is No.... No it's not viable anymore.