Build:Virtuoso - Power Speartuoso Roamer

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on March 04, 2025 and is up to date for the March 11, 2025 patch.

Overview

A Power Shatter Virtuoso build for WvW roaming that makes use of the most recent addition to Mesmer's arsenal, the spear.

Skill Bar

Spear

Dagger/Shield

Utility

Skill Variants

Weapons

• Pistol over Shield - better damage in exchange for lower sustain. If however you don't have the Secrets of the Obscure expansion to unlock Weaponmaster Training, you'll have to play with Pistol or even Torch.

• Sword over Dagger - more defensive option with better mobility, but the build becomes a lot more melee focused with this.

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Equipment

Head
Demolisher

Shoulders
Demolisher

Chest
Demolisher

Hands
Demolisher

Legs
Demolisher

Feet
Demolisher

Backpiece
Dragon

Accessory
Dragon

Accessory
Dragon

Amulet
Demolisher

Ring
Demolisher

Ring
Demolisher

Spear
Dragon

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger
Dragon

Shield
Dragon

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

Sigils

Spear

If you can afford to give up some survivability for better bursts, take the following sigils:

• - the Quickness makes it easier to land
  Mind the Gap
  .

• - the sigil itself can do a lot of damage, but one of the main reasons for taking this is that it can instantly proc Sigil of Rage (if you hit something in melee with the weapon swap).

Relics

• - this will increase your damage but gives up a mobility boost for it, which makes it harder to stick to targets on Spear or disengage in general.

Consumables

Food

• - great offensive stats and some direct damage mitigation.
  • - a bit more defensive but equally viable option.

• - this food provides some defense against condition damage without sacrificing damage.

• - active damage mitigation via more frequent access to dodging, and the Might generation has synergy with various traits.
  • Budget version:

• or
  - cheap precision bump and armor ignoring damage procs that also heal you.

Utility

• or
  .

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Shatters are replaced by Bladesongs (we're still going to refer to these as shatters).

• Instead of generating clones in combat you now stack Blades and Blades persist even after combat. The maximum count is 5 instead of 3.

• Bladesongs are a bit more clunky than regular shatters. They require you to face the target to activate and have a cast time, therefore the first 3 cannot be used defensively while stunned.

General

• Blocking or dodging an attack stocks blades for shatters, and using a shatter skills grants Aegis. The interaction between these two ensures that you'll almost always have some blades ready to be used.

• Blocking or dodging also gives you important boons such as Fury and Quickness, which serve as ideal setup for shatter skills and
  Mind the Gap
  .

Damage

• Bladesong Harmony
  is your main burst skill as far as shatters are concerned and has 2 charges.

• Use
  Bladesong Sorrow
  as a filler when Bladesong Harmony is on CD.

• Dagger #2
  Bladecall
  is quite powerful in its own right. The skill shoots projectiles at your target, but the bulk of the damage is delivered when these projectiles return. For burst damage you should try to sync up the returning blades with a shatter or
  Mind the Gap
  .

Spear

• Mind the Gap
  (MTG) is the bread and butter of spear, it's both the main burst skill and its central mechanic.

• Whenever you score a hit with MTG you gain Clarity, which empowers your next skill. Therefore MTG should almost always be the first skill you use on Spear.

• MTG does more damage and has a higher crit chance if the target is near the outer edge of the skill. Try to use it from just outside melee range!

• Phantasmal Lancer
  isn't just a Phantasm skill. If you can hit an enemy with the leap itself, you'll remove some boons too.
  • Clarity: summon 2 Phantasms.

• The main purpose of
  Mental Collapse
  is to reset the CD of MTG and serve as a gap closer for it.
  • Clarity: stuns the target.

• While
  Imaginary Inversion
  is mainly a defensive skill on this set, it does quite high damage in melee and can be used to safely counterpressure enemies.

Spear burst rotation

1. Mind the Gap
   while trying to hit enemies with the outer ring.
2. Mental Collapse
   which is now empowered and stuns targets.
3. Mind the Gap
   again. Try to walk away from the stunned target while casting it in order to put them inside the outer ring of MTG.
4. Phantasmal Lancer
   which should now summon 2 Phantasms due to having Clarity.

Sustain

• Bladesong Distortion
  is the strongest defensive skill you have. Not only does it prevent incoming attacks, but also saves you from condition damage you'd be taking.
  • Don't hesitate to use
    Signet of Illusions
    to reset this skill if you're in trouble.

• Bladeturn Requiem
  has value as an instant source of Aegis that can be used even while stunned, or to shield yourself from an incoming attack while doing your Spear burst.

• Ether Feast
  is the main source of condi cleansing here. Try to use it with 3+ blades stocked whenever possible.
  • In condition matchups you may want to hold onto this skill longer. Heal only when you need to cleanse, if you're not in too much danger.

• The second best cleanse is weapon swapping for
  .

• Third best is
  Imaginary Inversion
  on Spear.

• Swap to shield if you're being pressured, it has 2 blocking skills on skill #4 that you can use to buy time for CDs to come back up, or to build distance.

• Stealth is your last resort option for when you need to disengage or create some breathing room.

Related Builds

• Virtuoso - Power Speartuoso - sPvP version of the build.