Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been browsing a lot of the forums and various other sites which offer different types of builds for both PvP and PvE. But I’ve noticed that most, if not all, usually consist of 1H/1H or a Staff build.

No greatsword builds?

I personally love using the greatsword, but at times i can feel that it really isn’t packing the punch that it should be. But nonetheless, I would most likely stick with it.

Am I the only one feeling this way? Is there hope for improvement with this class and this weapon?

PS: What they did with mind spike really sucks. If it isnt bad enough that the spell has to be ground targeted, if you miss (or even hit the target) I don’t think that long root afterwards is worth the use.

I’ve personally been using a greatsword and sword/pistol on my mesmer with impressive results, can always seems to top score charts in sPvP.

Although i’m not one to give away builds. :p i will say that the it works well with a power/crit based build and making regular use of “Mirror Blade” and “Phantasmal berseker” can make this weapon really shine with right Trait/rune/sigil/accessory setup.

Using phantasmal/clones on alt wep set as well can increase the builds effectiveness.
I’d recommend experimenting round with traits abit and runes as well as accessory to try boost up critical damage as well as traits to buff up phantasms etc.

The problem is that 1h sword/pistol (or sword) is the best damage output a mesmer can get. The staff then offers an ungodly amount of defensive options and utility.

On the other hand the greatsword is a bit schizophrenic, its 1 wants you to be at max range yet the 2 is best when close, while again the 5 is based around making distance. It’s 1 also sets it out as a single target weapon while every other ability is aoe.

The 3 ability wind up time is just to long and makes you a sitting duck, it essentially undoes everything that the 5 ability does, it feels like its standard cast speed should be the same as its current cast speed under quickness (use timewarp and then cast it to see what I mean).

The phantasmal bersker is then one of the weakest phantasms and completes the lack of focus that is the greatsword, it does random line aoe for mediocre amounts of damage and applies crippling of all things while having a really long recharge time.

Essentially there is no build of mesmer which would really WANT to use it. If your running a phantasm build then sword+pistol/sword and staff is better. If your running a condition build its just bad and if your running a raw power build then “maybe” you could use it but again I’m not sure you wouldn’t get more mileage out of something else.

Overall it has some nice core ideas but the actual implementation is to bad for it to be a good core weapon, definitely not in any form of PvP and only in PvE because we don’t have another ranged power/precision weapon.

EDIT: @redbyte. I recommend swapping your greatsword for a staff, if your build is solid and you use it right (sounds like your basically running my build though I can’t be sure) then the swap should greatly increase your survivability and damage output.