A general-purpose party for your GWAMM

This is my tried-and-true hero party used for an HM mission running service and two GWAMMs, one on dervish and the other on necromancer. It has worked for me everywhere in the game, normal mode or hard mode, with the only real exceptions being Domain of Anguish HM and Underworld HM due to them needing some specific setups. Many of these builds are variations of builds that have been meta for years now.

Hero Setups

N/Mo

• Survivor Insignia (x5)
• Major Soul Reaping (on head)
• Major Vigor
• Vitae (x3)
• Insightful Staff of Enchanting with “Have Faith”

This hero doesn’t seem particularly useful at first glance, but it’s a sleeper build. Since Soul Reaping provides energy on enemy death, this build can maintain UA all the time, providing instant res with full health and energy should someone go down, with the healing buff permanently applied. This build provides general protection from taking huge hits, and is the party safety net.

N/Rt

• Survivor Insignia (x5)
• Major Soul Reaping (on head)
• Minor Curses
• Major Vigor
• Vitae (x2)
• Adept Staff with “Have Faith”

This is our primary healer. Many people run Blood is Power (BiP), if you find this necessary for your character build you can make the change but I find this healer is much more effective at healing if they are not constantly using BiP, and in my testing the mesmers did not gain a significant performance boost from BiP when using the setup I’m providing here.

E-Surge 1 (Me/P)

• Survivor Insignia (x5)
• Major Domination (on head)
• Minor Inspiration
• Minor Fast Casting
• Major Vigor
• Vitae
• Domination 40/40 Set (I use the blues crafted in Vasburg Armory/Leviathan Pits)

This is one of our primary damage dealers, using the same build as the other mesmers with only a few skills swapped. I like to run Fall Back to speed things along a little bit, and shatter enchantment. There only a couple hexes in this party and we don’t want to remove them, so I do not run Shatter Hex. Between Power Drain and Waste Not, Want Not, these builds are extremely balanced on energy and typically do not struggle to cast their skills.

E-Surge 2 (Me/X)

• Survivor Insignia (x5)
• Major Domination (on head)
• Minor Inspiration
• Minor Fast Casting
• Major Vigor
• Vitae
• Domination 40/40 Set

This is our other primary damage dealer. For this one I like to run Signet of Weakness to weaken the enemies and further drain their energy, as well as Wastrel’s Worry to work alongside Wastrel’s Demise in the next build. If you have already dropped your Flex hero and need another slot, drop this hero next.

Panic (Me/X)

• Survivor Insignia (x5)
• Major Domination (on head)
• Minor Inspiration
• Minor Fast Casting
• Major Vigor
• Vitae
• Domination 40/40 Set

This is hero runs the same base skills for the build but focuses more on group interrupts with Panic. The flex skills here are Spiritual Pain (for enemy minions and spirits), as well as Wastrel’s Demise to build on the previous hero’s Wastrel’s Worry.

ST (Soul Twisting)

• Survivor (x5)
• Superior Communing (on head)
• Major Spawning Power
• Superior Vigor
• Vitae (x2)
• Insightful Staff of Quickening with “Have Faith”

This hero is the backbone of the party, and is what enables the Necro builds to work so well. This is our backline that prevents the vast majority of damage that would be dealt to any given player. This hero is pretty much non-negotiable for the party if you intend to do really hard activities.

Flex (SoS)

• Survivor (x5)
• Superior Channeling (on head)
• Minor Spawning Power
• Major Vigor
• Vitae (x2)
• Insightful Staff of Quickening with “Have Faith”

This is our flex spot. This party is designed around being able to carry someone through anything in the game, and this is the first hero to be dropped when you need a slot. I’ve included an SoS build and setup because I generally run an SoS here, but not everyone has access to 2 ritualists. I also use this slot for MM, or required mission heroes like Dunkoro. This slot can be filled by any hero that doesnt cause scatter (such as RoJ). If you scatter the enemies, E-Surge and Panic become less effective. If you have a fourth mesmer, the Keystone build can be incredibly effective to add knockdown and additional interrupts (Replacing E-Surge with Keystone is totally doable but I find it falls apart a little quicker in extremely difficult areas).

Pro Tips:

• Managing aggro effectively will take this team from “Easy mode” to “I don’t die anymore”. The more bunched up the enemies are, the more they get shut down and the quicker they die.
• Pinging enemies makes a huge difference; if you identify a threat or a tight bunch you should be pinging it so the heroes focus up.

Feel free to message me in game with any questions!