Guild Wars 2

I have to say it, from an RP and sheer dynamics perspective, I absolutely love the concept of greatsword on mesmer being used to channel energy as a ranged weapon.

This said, I’ve found it terribly underwhelming and lacking in consistency. Is it an aoe weapon or a single target one? If it’s aoe why does it not measure up to staff in EITHER survivability or damage, if it’s single target why does it lack the punch of a sword/pistol or scepter/pistol build while also being less survivable than either? What’s the point of range based modifiers on attack if the clones it produces with the second skill die a horrible death before they can be effective?

I’ve done the research on this, and it seems like ANet devs don’t know what they want greatsword to be for mesmer.

It started out a very coherent weapon, with boosts to damage at range, plenty of skills to keep a single foe there, and a reasonable amount of burst, but balanced by a lack of survivability when attacked by multiple foes or when your cooldowns run out.

Now, it seems GS has been stripped of most of its ability to keep foes at range (meaning its main attack is pretty much permanently neutered in a solo or pvp situation), the changes to blink since its introduction exacerbated this, and the reworking of mind stab into a lower damage aoe has rendered its damage underwhelming.

I now find it the least survivable weapon in the game while only packing slightly more damage than scepter/focus. If I didn’t have a nostromo to aid in my mobility it would be completely untennable.

TLDR:
Mesmer greatsword needs help.

Thoughts:
If it’s to be glass cannon it needs to be the clear winner in single-target damage.
If it’s to be an aoe weapon its remaining attacks need to chain and it needs more survivability.
If it’s to be balanced with other weapons in terms of single target vs aoe it needs both more single-target damage and survivability
(mind stab should hit harder and either the remove the range penalty on the first attack or enhance the ability to retain range and actually preserve clone life such as phase retreat — or having the main attack apply a snare?)
clones which cast spatial surge should spawn and attempt to stay at range.

Personally, I’d love to see this weapon viable as a main-line single target power weapon again, and think it rather sad that theory-crafters are now trying to make conditions based builds on a weapon specifically mentioned in our dominance trait.

You know there is section in the forums for mesmer, right? If not, you’ll find it under professions.

roqoco.4053:

You know there is section in the forums for mesmer, right? If not, you’ll find it under professions.

And it’s not marked suggestions. This post is a suggestion.

Pretty much all posts on these forums are suggestions of one sort or another. If you want to get the ear of the devs concerned with professions, it would seem sensible to put your post in the professions section. I can’t imagine that everyone at Arenanet will be trawling the whole forum to find posts such as this.

Further that is where you are likely to find other mesmers who can comment more knowledgeably about your ideas.

I use a GreatSword on my mesmer and currently have no problems with it. You know… GS is great for making a tone of clones since you’ve got both mirror blade and phantasm beserker which does a great deal of damage if you build the traits right. The only other clone that does more damage than the phantsm beserker is the phantasm warden but it’s not as mobile compare to the phantasm beserker. (hit around 4-5 K every time i summon phantasm beserker at lvl 80).