Guild Wars 2

I’ve been toying around with s/tPvP shatter builds, and came up with this:

The Build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArcRlknpMtNqxWNcrNCrxg6s26MSOQAlsirB-TJRBABBu/gGPBAyKDAwpAAA

It’s a scepter/sword + Greatsword shatter/hybrid build. I looked at the stickied build page and didn’t see anything similar listed, but let me know if someone has already written a guide or anything.

Explanation
Basically, I was getting far too much pressure from thieves, warriors and guardians in most 1v1s to stay alive. This allows you to either initiate at far range, of run in using scepter 2 to block things like Basilisk venom, guardian’s blinks, and warrior’s leaps. You can actually play it a bit like a phantasm build for tanky opponents, and then start shattering once you have baited a few dodges/blocks out of them. For team fights you mainly stick to greatsword bursting, like staff/greatsword shatter builds.

Anti-Thief…ish
Against thieves that aren’t used to it you can block twice, dodge into them and do a full shatter, often downing them immediately.You also have two blocks to help against backstabs. Thieves are still our biggest threat, but you gain a bit more traction when fighting them.

Why not Staff/Greatsword?
I tried staff before scepter/sword, but I couldn’t keep enough pressure up with it and the enemies would end up healing. Phase retreat is awesome, but staff needs a damage boost. With scepter/sword I find the blocks provide good defense with nice damage, and have a really low CD between the two of them. Scepter will hopefully get even better if the auto is reworked in the next balance update. Sword 4 also has that nice daze, which works great with the minor Domination traits.

Recommend improvements!
I’ve only played it for a few days, but I’m really enjoying it. I would love if anyone would try it out and recommend any changes!

On my phone so will keep it short and sweet: build looks fine, it’s a case of which offers more: chaos armor/phase retreat vs 2 blocks. Other than that, you have no condition removal so you’ll want to avoid longer fights.
In spvp travelers isn’t really worth it imo, especially if youre running portal – swap it out for lyssa or ranger perhaps? Also maybe trysigils of fire and air rather than force. Looks good otherwise

Trait setup is pretty much similar to standard tPvP. Therefore the build has a major flaw, and that is: It is too fragile without heavy team support.

So probably not the way to go for sPvP and pretty much the same as every other mesmer in tPvP.

i use scepter/sword and sword/focus. yesterday i fought a guardian for about 10 minutes, coming out victorious. i’d say going with two ranged weapons on a mesmer is never a good idea because all it takes to drop you is still, a thief. greatsword gives you no defense against anything, save for the knockback. i’d recommend dropping greatsword for sword/pistol, it’d make you a lot better at 1v1 fighting.

@Coxy
Great point about the condi removal, I think I’ll run null field rather than portal to help with the conditions.

@Kai
Yeah, unless deceptive evasion and Illusionary persona become baseline, we don’t have a lot of wiggle room from traits. Any ideas to improve defense for this build?

@Lightsbane
I didn’t find sword/focus scepter/sword great for teamights. Any ideas on how to make it work better in group fights?

Eleivo.2761:

@Coxy
Great point about the condi removal, I think I’ll run null field rather than portal to help with the conditions.

@Kai
Yeah, unless deceptive evasion and Illusionary persona become baseline, we don’t have a lot of wiggle room from traits. Any ideas to improve defense for this build?

@Lightsbane
I didn’t find sword/focus scepter/sword great for teamights. Any ideas on how to make it work better in group fights?

pick your targets? it’s insane in small fights. it’s meant for single combat, which i think i said. i run stealth, blink, and arcane thievery with it so my uptime is pretty solid.

Ok, a few things.

Firstly, I did see that you addressed a comment regarding condition removal. Null field is not an adequate personal condition removal in any way. It fills the role of a team support condition removal. If that’s your goal, then that’s fine. However, if you want to be able to survive some condie pressure, you need something more effective: Mantra of resolve or pDisenchanter.

Something that was also mentioned but that you didn’t address is that you’re using traveler runes. There’s absolutely no reason to use traveler runes outside of WvW roaming. They’re horrid except for the 6 bonus, and that has no use in PvP. Pick a runeset that isn’t useless, there’s plenty of options.

You’re using force sigils on both weapons. A better choice would be battle sigils. The 3 stacks of might on swap provide 105 power, which is about 5% damage boost. However, without any additional might duration, you can get 6 permanent stacks from swapping, providing a damage boost of 10%.

Overall, I’m not sure your rational for choosing scepter makes a lot of sense. In my ‘Overpowered’ build, I choose scepter for a lot of similar reasons, particularly the block. However, these reasons only make sense because I already have mainhand sword on my other set. While the block is nice, it’s outclassed by blurred frenzy if you’re looking at it as a purely defensive tool. Blurred frenzy will also do more damage, provided melee range. Additionally, without leap/swap it can be quite difficult to land shatters effectively.

In staff/greatsword builds, this difficulty in landing shatters is offset by the superior mobility and defense staff provides. Scepter provides neither superior mobility, defense, or damage over mainhand sword, and so it doesn’t make a ton of sense as a replacement choice.

@Fay
Thanks for all the feedback!

I like being in group combat more than 1v1s, so I tend to run null field. I find pDisenchanter often ends up getting shattered, and the activation time isn’t great. Would you recommend mantra of resolve over null field for team fights, or is it better to clear boons?

Thanks for pointing out battle sigils are definitely better than force. I never realized that before, but certainly won’t be running force again now that I know.

I was running Rune of Strength for a while, but really enjoyed the 25% movement speed bonus from Travelers to get around the map. I probably need to just improve my map awareness, and change to something that helps during combat. Would you recommend switching back to Strength, or choose something else?

I used to use sword, but thanks to the recent patch I’ve had too many leaping clones die before I could swap. If sword was changed back I would definitely use it again. Luckily I’m decent at landing shatters with just greatsword, so I don’t miss too much without any leap/swap.

Again, thanks for your critique. It looks like you already increased the damage of the build by 10%! I’ll likely keep playing around with this for a bit, at least until I’m willing to admit staff/greatsword is better :P

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Hmmm,. why the far reaching manipulation?only for blink? That trait could be used for phantasm fury. The reality is one blink at 900 units and a roll will take almost to 1200 unit range. I think you may get more over all use from phantasm fury. Particularly is you swap GS for S/P.

@Cntrl
It’s a hard choice. The extra range on blink makes it easier to port to places like the top of the clocktower, and the cliffs surrounding graveyard. It’s saved my life so many times I hesitate to drop it for the added damage. I’ll see whether I can live without it. Thanks for the recommendation!

Eleivo.2761:

@Cntrl
It’s a hard choice. The extra range on blink makes it easier to port to places like the top of the clocktower, and the cliffs surrounding graveyard. It’s saved my life so many times I hesitate to drop it for the added damage. I’ll see whether I can live without it. Thanks for the recommendation!

1200 range blink is essential for a lot of blink spots in PvP. Don’t ditch it.

Strength runes are always a good choice. You could also experiment with things like pack runes or scholar runes.