Guild Wars 2

I currently use GS/sword+pistol, and I’ve been having great success; great dmg output and decent survivability. However, I’ve crossed paths with mesmers using staff and they seem to have me beat in both aforementioned aspects, especially survivability. I’ve tried it out, but i just can’t seem to make it work; condition priority builds, phantasm builds, shatter builds, etc..

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Chaos armor is key.

Dont use 4 as soon as you enter combat. Drop a 5, stand in it and hit 2. Free chaos armor. Then use 4 when its down. If you are running Null Field (you should be) your 2 should be up again. Drop the null field and hit 2 again. Chaos armor once more.

Also, stand in your chaos storms.

Well i don`t know much about Phantasm builds with staff. But you can be pretty Tough with staff if you go more in to -Chaos- trait line , as well as pick some appropriate runes(for ex. rune of the Undead). Also Staff have great sinergy with shatter skills – reason :
Staff uses condition -> Trait line “Illusion” Improve condition dmg/Shatter CD – Shatter skills can Apply Condition = Condition build via Shatter skills and Staff.
Staff have weakness – low direct damage, and you can`t rely much on your illusion and phantasm (as they easly killed in AoE) thats why using Shatter skills more often is advised. Some builds rely purely on shatter (ex. my shatter build – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgr2qAZxB8U ) and swap weapons constantly, other builds may use only staff as main weapon for all around situations (if you traited in -Chaos- line) staff will provide good enought defense that switching it only will make you more easy to kill.
Well i suggest you to decide what build do you wanna play, then ask for advice, as your build can greatly change your play style with mesmer.

Explicit.3489:

Chaos armor is key.

Dont use 4 as soon as you enter combat. Drop a 5, stand in it and hit 2. Free chaos armor. Then use 4 when its down. If you are running Null Field (you should be) your 2 should be up again. Drop the null field and hit 2 again. Chaos armor once more.

Also, stand in your chaos storms.

This.
Chaos Storm should be used defensively not offensively. Meaning don’t use it for an AoE with crap damage. Use it as an AoE Buff that also applies debuffs to enemies inside it. And use combo fields effectively, you should have plenty to keep Chaos Armor up most of the time.
Staff turns mesmers into tanks.

Thanks for the responses. I’ll experiment when i get home from work.