Guild Wars 2

Right now I run a 30/10/0/0/30 shatter/lockdown build, taking a large chunk of the damage from a straightforward shatter build and adding more versatility with chain-dazes, vuln stacking, and enemy boon removal. Works well in team fights and 1v1 situations, but it takes a bit of practice to understand the extra mechanics.

And I think there’s the rub right there: “Takes practice.” When people jump in to play Mesmer, they usually start with a Phantasm build, especially in PvP because it takes less practice and easier to learn mechanics.

The sudden rise of Prismatic Understanding (PU) Mesmer follow a similar mindset: takes less work for the same reward. It’s a shame, really, because the Mesmer class has a lot of interesting builds that do not get enough limelight because of this “take the easy way”/“that’s too hard for me” mentality. I don’t look down on anyone picking up an easier build to start, but when they adhere to that “easy” build and never spent more than a few minutes trying out anything else it gets a bit disappointing. I see more Prismatic and Phantasm Mesmers more than anything, even if those aren’t the most optimal builds for the situation, and it just perpetuates the ridiculous stereotype that Mesmer is an “easy” class. Every class has easy builds, and every class has builds that can be more effective but take more effort to make work; its a matter of the individual player.

And then there’s always the parrots: “Mesmer isn’t good because of this. Run Phantasm because shatter is bad.” Some of these people have legitimate reasons, but I’d wager more often then not most people who say that haven’t really explored the class/builds as much as they let on. This mentality leads people to stray to the “optimal” classes. I’ve heard “Thief can do everything Mesmer can do but better” plenty of times, and I shake my head every time I hear that because it’s not a matter of the class, it’s a matter of the specific builds involved.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Right now I run a 30/10/0/0/30 shatter/lockdown build, taking a large chunk of the damage from a straightforward shatter build and adding more versatility with chain-dazes, vuln stacking, and enemy boon removal. Works well in team fights and 1v1 situations, but it takes a bit of practice to understand the extra mechanics.

And I think there’s the rub right there: “Takes practice.” When people jump in to play Mesmer, they usually start with a Phantasm build, especially in PvP because it takes less practice and easier to learn mechanics.

The sudden rise of Prismatic Understanding (PU) Mesmer follow a similar mindset: takes less work for the same reward. It’s a shame, really, because the Mesmer class has a lot of interesting builds that do not get enough limelight because of this “take the easy way”/“that’s too hard for me” mentality. I don’t look down on anyone picking up an easier build to start, but when they adhere to that “easy” build and never spent more than a few minutes trying out anything else it gets a bit disappointing. I see more Prismatic and Phantasm Mesmers more than anything, even if those aren’t the most optimal builds for the situation, and it just perpetuates the ridiculous stereotype that Mesmer is an “easy” class. Every class has easy builds, and every class has builds that can be more effective but take more effort to make work; its a matter of the individual player.

And then there’s always the parrots: “Mesmer isn’t good because of this. Run Phantasm because shatter is bad.” Some of these people have legitimate reasons, but I’d wager more often then not most people who say that haven’t really explored the class/builds as much as they let on. This mentality leads people to stray to the “optimal” classes. I’ve heard “Thief can do everything Mesmer can do but better” plenty of times, and I shake my head every time I hear that because it’s not a matter of the class, it’s a matter of the specific builds involved.

What a well written post.

I’m not quite sure if “more effective but takes more effort” is an accurate statement for a lot of builds…

Daishi.6027:

I’m not quite sure if “more effective but takes more effort” is an accurate statement for a lot of builds…

For a lot, true, but I still stand by my belief that each class has builds that are difficult but more effective, even if they haven’t necessarily been explored yet. And even obscure builds that are as good as mainstream have the advantage of being harder to predict.

Because it hits just as hard as phantasms but it takes longer interval to be reused again → longer time = higher risk because your enemies will regain endurance, defensive skill recharge and what not. Shattering is also hard to land because you have to stay melee to get maximum damage. The good thing about it is that it’s a burst AOE. But who cares about aoe burst when you’re not glassy staff ele?

That being said, I wanna kill myself every time I see condi PU mesmers. It’s even dumber than a thief spamming 222222222222222222222222222222

DavyMcB.1603:

That being said, I wanna kill myself every time I see condi PU mesmers.

I wish people would. Makes it even more fun!

Qaelyn.7612:

DavyMcB.1603:

That being said, I wanna kill myself every time I see condi PU mesmers.

I wish people would. Makes it even more fun!

As predicted the true nature of the Prismatic Understanding Mesmer is revealed – nothing but a troll who delights in other players having a kittenty experience.

Did you use an wooden plank to record that video?

Coulter.2315:

Qaelyn.7612:

DavyMcB.1603:

That being said, I wanna kill myself every time I see condi PU mesmers.

I wish people would. Makes it even more fun!

As predicted the true nature of the Prismatic Understanding Mesmer is revealed – nothing but a troll who delights in other players having a kittenty experience.

When I’m not making videogame builds just to ruin the experience for others, I like to torture small furry animals.

Qaelyn.7612:

When I’m not making videogame builds just to ruin the experience for others, I like to torture small furry animals.

The devs hold more of the responsibility for making sure the possible builds are fun for all players involved. One area of this is the effort/reward ratio. They must have been sick that day. Or more likely the process of finding a good effort/reward ratio would disrupt the PvE side of things.

Qaelyn.7612:

Snip

I just find a Mesmer being able to remove 4 boons in a aoe fashion far more valuable than being able to stealth the team once every 90 seconds for 5 seconds. Not to mention they have the AoE burst damage from shatters which a PU can only really spike down one person. It fits in better with the current Earth-shaker prone teams.

Shatter Mesmer adds in boon removal, control, aoe damage, and group utility through Time Warp and portal. Where as the PU build is a selfish build not giving much to group play. That is just how I see it.

Simplicity.7208:

• The burst doesn’t work on anyone with a brain (easy to dodge & split amongst your various clones instead of one hit like backstab)
• The burst is exponentially harder to play than any OP warrior or necro build you could run and achieves similar DPS
• Mesmers are very condition weak + there’s a condition meta, so mesmer counters are everywhere
• Shatter mesmers are too glassy; PvP = bunker wars, if you can’t hold a point until reinforcements arrive, you don’t have much place in PvP (note the bunker meta)
• Mesmers have lower mobility than a thief and thus are less adept at roaming, the primary goal of a glass spec in PvP
• Shatter mesmers are not typically as useful as other classes in team fights due to clones dying before you can shatter them and phantasms not having cleave
  Any questions?

Unrelated: Never run torch on a PvP shatter mesmer. Not only is torch a condition weapon with a terrible phantasm but stealth decaps points which hurts your team more than it helps. Mantras are also a poor choice for various reasons I choose not to go into.

Perfectly explained for considering you play competitive (excluding SoloQ and hotjoin as there you can play whatever you want and still be able to win).

Lol Remember when GW2 released and was like “We take warrior as the base and build from there!”

Re-design GW2 using Shatter Mesmer as a base build from there xD Hahaha. Merry Crits-mas.

Tman.6349:

I’ve bursted a bunker guard from full health to downed in less than 3 seconds. No he was not a terrible guardian and yes he saw me coming from a mile away.

Guardians have a 2 second block heal and a 2 second invuln. He was a terrible Guardian.

I have been playing a shatter mesmer forever now. I can say this: it has definitely become more difficult to be truly efficient. However, I feel, and my team feels, they are still a great boon to the team.

You can be jesus and save your friends from tough spots, transforming a 2v1 against one of your comrade on any point to a 3v1 on another point by using the portal intelligently. This, in turn, wins you a cap plus a 15 seconds 5v4 to dominate the map.

I play without any condition removals, because my job is to move fast between points to help my comrades. I come in, shatter, and I’m gone (Whoever is throwing conditions probably won’t have time to switch targets to me because I’ll be gone before he notices). I use Mirror Images so they don’t see my shatter coming. If I’m intercepted by some thief, I can use the two instant clones to pop Distortion and then a friend has the time to join me. We then overwhelm whoever intercepted me and it’s a 15 seconds of 5v4 again.

I move with my Temporal Curtain, which gives me Swiftness, and a traited Blink. I can basically reach the other end of any of the maps in around 10 seconds. Even as a squishy shatter mesmer a thief won’t get me down, so imagine if your teammates are traited and geared to resist a while. You have ample time to get there, shatter your enemies to pieces and leave to help another point fast.

To play a shatter mesmer efficiently in a team right now you really need to be a good communicator. It’s your primary tool, because it’s too risky to fight gladiator style against the META builds out there who are gonna keep you CC’ed, Condi’ed and are tough.

It’s about what you want to play and how your team wants to play in the end, but a Mesmer, even with it’s “disadvantages”, can still perform greatly and be a boon to the team.

EDIT: Me and my team haven’t played for a while, my current Leaderboards rank proves nothing unfortunately.

Rinzler.8072:

Dunno, shatter mesmer doesnt really seem worth it at all. U can drop a what, 10k bomb every 10 seconds? Anyone who spaying attention is just saving up to dodge, evade, etc whatever that.

When u can run a phantasm mesmer up with 3 iswordsmen droping 18k every 4.7 seconds…

The news mirrored images can be used instantly and simultaneously with other skills.
Mesmer shatter may only deal 10k every 10 seconds with mindwrack alone but what is being shown in the video is a way to double shatter. (Up to 23k in less than a second with the leap combo as tested on a necro with soldier ammy.) It can be worth it.