Guild Wars 2

Pyroatheist.9031:

@Nemesis: You need to learn the mesmer traits a bit better. 25 points into the inspiration (our main support/healing power/vitality line) is a minor trait that makes our phantasms do 15% more damage. That’s 15% higher damage flat, without relying on power, crit chance, or crit damage. Another trait exists 10 points into domination, 15% damage, and they stack.

You seem to attract the worst type of people in fractal runs…or maybe it’s not the other people, you have to also consider that as well. If all of your fractal runs go poorly, there’s only 1 common factor. In my experience with fractal runs, having a necromancer is fantastic, continual conditions, lots of mob disabling utility, along with making my warlocks hit like trucks (think 8.5k-10k per hit, every 4 seconds…and you think your build does more damage than that?). Having mesmers in a party is also great. Even if they don’t know exactly what to do to optimize their builds and playstyle to each encounter, I can guide them in that regard, and they come out knowing more than they went in, along with contributing to a very smooth and quick fractal run.

Here’s one more thing. Your build isn’t new. It’s not unique. It’s the standard glass cannon mantra nuker that hits like a truck in some very specific situations and does nothing else. It’s been around for a very long time, as putting 30 points into both of the damage trees is something that people did way back at the start of the game. The reason you never see it run is because it sucks.

I’m glad you managed to work up a response, but a little bit annoyed that you still conveniently ignored all of the myriad points I made as to why your build is ineffective.

Edit: You keep mentioning support, survivability, and damage as if they were things that couldn’t possibly fit together in 1 build. Allow me to present my PvE phantasm build: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-PvE-Supporting-Phantasm-Build/first

I have been using this build in all pve content (with a couple small exceptions) for upwards of 4 months, as you can tell by the posting date. It has around 20k hp for good passive survivability, as well as just over 2000 armor. It has strong aoe healing (2600 per 3 seconds), can spec for 100% uptime on projectile reflection, or 100% uptime on projectile destruction, can do aoe boon removal, stealing, sharing, aoe condition removal, self condition removal. Has stunbreaks, invulnerabilities, and of course, it has very high damage. My warlocks will hit generally for around 5-6k in a party with no necromancer, and often over 10k in parties with a necromancer. My wardens will spin for 8k damage. Swordsmen will do 5k chunks. My own damage is actually decent, though it doesn’t compare to the damage my phantasms can do.

In this build, you get survivability, damage, and support all in one. Enjoy!

Ok… i did an initial initial test of your build… the phantasmal warlocks at best did a 5k+ critical hit with double the critical strike damage you have in your build. The phantasmal warlocks also… “attacks every 6 seconds with an activation time of 1 second. 4.8 seconds interval via Phantasmal Haste.
Attack range is 900 units.” – Not every 4 seconds.

You also do condition damage in your build to power up your warlocks without having close to no condition damage stat, or… you auto-attack with your greatsword without having the 21% damage boost from mantra traits…

Phantasmal Healing Phantasms grant regeneration to nearby allies… but then you shatter…

Compounding Power 3% more damage for each of your active illusions… but then you shatter…

Restorative Mantras Heal allies when you cast a mantra – Healing: 2,600 + 0.2x Healing Power stat.
The heal is triggered when the mantra is prepared, not when it is activated.
Has a radius of approximately 600 units.
It’s an amazing trait to have… but you don’t have healing power stat for it… you are not maximum in this either…

Since you dislike my matra utilities… you have replaced my mantra utilities with better support. Feedback (which i said can be integrated in my build)… and decoy… which is not a party support utility.

My build is squishy… your build has 4000 more health… mmmm…

This is what i have observed on this build so far…
I will continue testing because as you can see i am taking this seriously.

@Nemesis: The warlocks scale at 10% per unique condition on the target. When I have a necromancer in the party is normally when I will heavily favor the staff, as the condition pressure they put on mobs will boost their damage up into the ranges I was mentioning.

You don’t shatter. This is a phantasm build, not a shatter build. You shatter if absolutely necessary for defense or an interrupt. Other than that, no shatters.

Restorative mantras while using mantra of pain spam is a 2600 aoe heal every 3 seconds. This is the highest rate of healing that any class in the game can produce. Because of the massive base heal amount and the terrible healing power scaling, there is no need or reason to use healing power with that trait.

If you had read what I said in that build guide or in the post in this thread where I discussed it, you would have caught that I make frequent changes to all of my utilities. If decoy is not appropriate, I will remove it. I change my traits and utilities to match the encounter.

The issue is you simply don’t seem to understand the concept of a phantasm build. I use my phantasms to do my damage. I don’t care about a dps loss from the mantra trait because that doesn’t affect my phantasms. I don’t shatter the phantasms, they are my damage, my aoe regen, as well as additional retaliation damage sources.

Hexxen.7216:

To the OP:

Also, another reason we are so fast to tell you and sometimes in not so nice ways, what is wrong with the builds is from your titles of your posts. “Ultimate Hybrid” “Defining GC”. You realize how arrogant those titles are right? Especially when the builds you propose aren’t all that “ultimate”

Arrogant ?… i spend 30 minutes defining and argumenting each and every one of my decisions so i can discover and define a glass cannon build…

Ultimate damage hybrid… achieving the perfect balance between condition damage – power damage so that when you switch weapons to perform either condition damage/power damage it is worth it, since the condition damage is as valuable as the power damage… it’s the equivalent. Having 60% of both power damage and condition damage is only worth it if you can stack them on top of each other in some way… otherwise you will be at a potential of 60% of a power damage… few minutes later 60% of a condition damage. You will be useless at both…
Ultimate… is when you have achieved this equilibrium.

I find a lot more arrogant and also i personally dislike these advertising techniques (i use to work in advertising), such as… “uber armageddon protein shake… with real baby tears… at ONLY 9999.9$, get now… limited edition”… Using catchy names to bring audience.
I like to be descriptive… you get exactly what is on the label.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@Nemesis: The warlocks scale at 10% per unique condition on the target. When I have a necromancer in the party is normally when I will heavily favor the staff, as the condition pressure they put on mobs will boost their damage up into the ranges I was mentioning.

You don’t shatter. This is a phantasm build, not a shatter build. You shatter if absolutely necessary for defense or an interrupt. Other than that, no shatters.

Restorative mantras while using mantra of pain spam is a 2600 aoe heal every 3 seconds. This is the highest rate of healing that any class in the game can produce. Because of the massive base heal amount and the terrible healing power scaling, there is no need or reason to use healing power with that trait.

If you had read what I said in that build guide or in the post in this thread where I discussed it, you would have caught that I make frequent changes to all of my utilities. If decoy is not appropriate, I will remove it. I change my traits and utilities to match the encounter.

So basically you use the warlocks from the staff… and since you don’t have condition damage stat, you auto-attack with the greatsword… You have feedback and you have the 2600 heal every 3 seconds.

Mmm… you got 40% lower damage (in stats even) for 4000 health and the ability to heal 2600 heal every 3 seconds + permanent regeneration for allies.
It’s not every 3 seconds… cause it heals upon activation, and… unless i am missing something, it has an activation time of 2+ seconds, and has 2 charges that need 1 sec each to activate… only after that can you reactivate… so it’s 4+ seconds.

Mmmm… well i do not approve of trying to heal without healing stat, the heal is impressive i would say.

PS: Yeah i got 5 conditions on a mob and i kept using the warlock… it hit for like 5000 something at 113% critical strike chance.

@Nemesis: I’m not sure why you’re tunnel visioning on feedback. I’m also not sure why you’re tunnel visioning on the warlocks as well. Sometimes I’ll use the staff, sometimes greatsword, sometimes mainhand sword + focus is more appropriate.

Sometimes I’ll use feedback, sometimes I’ll use arcane thievery and signet of inspiration, sometimes I’ll take the daze mantra, or sometimes I’ll take the iDisenchanter.

Sometimes I’ll use my mantra healing, sometimes I won’t. Sometimes I’ll trait for focus reflects, sometimes I’ll trait my glamour cooldowns and durations, sometimes I’ll trait for condition removal on healing, or sometimes I’ll trait for 20% increased phantasm hp.

The point of my build is versatility and team support while maintaining good damage pressure through phantasms. Your build has 0 versatility and 0 team support. I can adapt my build to be perfectly optimal to any situation. Your build goes from sorta high damage to sorta high damage with absolutely no changes. If I wanted pure damage, I’d go for a warrior, not a mesmer, because even your absolute full glass cannon damage build that does NOTHING else pales in comparison to a warrior.

I find it amusing that you tag the builds with things like “40% lower damage”. There’s no way to quantify that. In many situations, my build might do 40% lower damage, but in some it might do more than that. In many MANY fights in this game where projectiles are involved, my build will do far more damage than your build could ever hope to do in its wildest dreams. Can your build do 170k damage to lupicus? Ah, that’s right, it can’t. Can your build continually return upwards of 70k damage every 10 seconds to the spider in TA path up? Ah, that’s right, it can’t. Additionally, can your build do that while at the same time healing its teammates? Ah, that’s right, it can’t.

The issue here is that mesmer provides so much utility that you are ignoring. The mesmer is the class of CAN do. A mesmer can do pretty much anything and everything if you have the right build, traits, and utilities. Your build can do nothing other than damage.

So overall, yes, in some situations where you are just sitting there autoattacking with a greatsword, yes, your build is the “definition of a glass cannon mesmer.” Unfortunately, no-one cares. It’s a poor build, it doesn’t fit into any team composition ever, and is a horrible choice unless you are trying to troll people with greatsword autoattacks in sPvP hotjoin—which is fun, I do it sometimes.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@Nemesis: I’m not sure why you’re tunnel visioning on feedback. I’m also not sure why you’re tunnel visioning on the warlocks as well. Sometimes I’ll use the staff, sometimes greatsword, sometimes mainhand sword + focus is more appropriate.

Sometimes I’ll use feedback, sometimes I’ll use arcane thievery and signet of inspiration, sometimes I’ll take the daze mantra, or sometimes I’ll take the iDisenchanter.

Sometimes I’ll use my mantra healing, sometimes I won’t. Sometimes I’ll trait for focus reflects, sometimes I’ll trait my glamour cooldowns and durations, sometimes I’ll trait for condition removal on healing, or sometimes I’ll trait for 20% increased phantasm hp.

The point of my build is versatility and team support while maintaining good damage pressure through phantasms. Your build has 0 versatility and 0 team support. I can adapt my build to be perfectly optimal to any situation. Your build goes from sorta high damage to sorta high damage with absolutely no changes. If I wanted pure damage, I’d go for a warrior, not a mesmer, because even your absolute full glass cannon damage build that does NOTHING else pales in comparison to a warrior.

I find it amusing that you tag the builds with things like “40% lower damage”. There’s no way to quantify that. In many situations, my build might do 40% lower damage, but in some it might do more than that. In many MANY fights in this game where projectiles are involved, my build will do far more damage than your build could ever hope to do in its wildest dreams. Can your build do 170k damage to lupicus? Ah, that’s right, it can’t. Can your build continually return upwards of 70k damage every 10 seconds to the spider in TA path up? Ah, that’s right, it can’t. Additionally, can your build do that while at the same time healing its teammates? Ah, that’s right, it can’t.

The issue here is that mesmer provides so much utility that you are ignoring. The mesmer is the class of CAN do. A mesmer can do pretty much anything and everything if you have the right build, traits, and utilities. Your build can do nothing other than damage.

So overall, yes, in some situations where you are just sitting there autoattacking with a greatsword, yes, your build is the “definition of a glass cannon mesmer.” Unfortunately, no-one cares. It’s a poor build, it doesn’t fit into any team composition ever, and is a horrible choice unless you are trying to troll people with greatsword autoattacks in sPvP hotjoin—which is fun, I do it sometimes.

I took you seriously enough to test everything you said with great attention… you seem to be offensive. My build can use feedback as needed as well.

I tunnel vision and tag because i require to see what’s the max damage… if it’s not as max as mine, then how much you lose in favor of what else do you gain.
I don’t lose the feedback, but i do lose the healing and perma regeneration.

When you say sometimes sometimes sometimes, there’s one thing that doesn’t fit… you can’t have all of these at the same time… So they might sound great together, you only use some of them… Like i said… having 60% damage + 60% utility + 60% healing together is only good when you stack, not when you have them one at a time. You would be a jack of all trades, that does nothing right.

Also it is my firm belief that a glass cannon warrior doing his best would not survive in high level fractals to have 70% uptime DPS, but this mesmer would… i would take glass cannon mesmer over glass cannon warrior in high level fractals any day of the week.

I wouldn’t mind continuing this discussion in a friendly manner… but “no one cares” and “your build is just bad because it’s not like mine” need to stay out.

PS: the insane damage you do to lupicus or other encounters doesn’t come from your healing… which is what my build can never do… Feedback it can, it’s a utility not a trait.

Nemesis.8593:

II tunnel vision and tag because i require to see what’s the max damage… if it’s not as max as mine, then how much you lose in favor of what else do you gain.
I don’t lose the feedback, but i do lose the healing and perma regeneration.

I’ve been saying specifically what you don’t have in your build. I’ll list them out here again, copy and pasting from a post I made a few hours ago in this thread.

• Continual uptime on projectile reflections between feedback and traited focus
  • Option to switch to projectile destruction by untraiting the focus
• Rapid and consistent boon stripping
• Boon stealing + Sharing
  • Sharing also doubles the potency/duration of any boons that other members of the party are providing
• Aoe condition removal + boon removal through null field
• Continual aoe regeneration through phantasm procs…without even having to do anything
• Highest aoe healing output in the game through mantra healing from mantra of pain with small amounts of healing power
• Extremely effective mob grouping utility for convenient aoe killing with temporal curtain
• Time warp
• Portaling past various things (this is most important in some specific areas such as swamp fractal or arah)
• Can use blurred frenzy to completely block many attacks from mobs

Of all these utilities, the ones your build can provide are:

• Time warp
• Using blurred frenzy to block many attacks from mobs

That is the difference. That is what you don’t have.

Nemesis.8593:

When you say sometimes sometimes sometimes, there’s one thing that doesn’t fit… you can’t have all of these at the same time… So they might sound great together, you only use some of them… Like i said… having 60% damage + 60% utility + 60% healing together is only good when you stack, not when you have them one at a time. You would be a jack of all trades, that does nothing right.

No, I can’t do all of those utilities at the same time, but I don’t need to. Any given encounter only requires a handful of them, and that handful is always accessible through the proper build. You will change them back and forth between encounters to make sure that you always have the correct handful. Since your build can’t do any of that, you don’t have the potential to even produce the correct handful.

Nemesis.8593:

Also it is my firm belief that a glass cannon warrior doing his best would not survive in high level fractals to have 70% uptime DPS, but this mesmer would… i would take glass cannon mesmer over glass cannon warrior in high level fractals any day of the week.

A glass cannon warrior doing his best will survive in high level fractals with the proper support. Heals, boons, mob control, reflects, regeneration, condition removal, all of these are the utilities that the mesmer can bring (while at the same time doing good damage) to make sure that the classes specced for absolute pure damage pressure can maintain that pressure effectively.

Nemesis.8593:

PS: the insane damage you do to lupicus or other encounters doesn’t come from your healing… which is what my build can never do… Feedback it can, it’s a utility not a trait.

The insane damage comes partially from feedback, but since feedback is on a 40 second cooldown in your build with no potential for cooldown reduction or duration increases, your uses of it will be extremely limited. However, most of the reflection potential comes from the traited focus, and you do not have the ability to do that either. In some very few situations, such as the first salvo from lupicus in phase 2, just 1 feedback is appropriate when used properly. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the only situation that that applies.

When I’m tired and have been repeating the exact same thing with different phrasing in multiple posts over the past 6 hours, I get testy and unpleasant in my responses. If you wished for more amicable replies, you would have done well to actually attempt to listen and understand my earlier replies, instead of ignoring half of them every time you put up a response.

Sorry nemesis but you really do seem to be missing the wood for the trees here. An effective mesmer (Even in terms of DPS) really is more than just big numbers.

Take for example your AoE phantasms, iWarden (Which you don’t use), and iZerker – they might well hit 6-7k routinely in a glassy build. But as long as you’re just throwing them at the enemy as they come you’re only hitting 2-3 enemies at a time; less with iDuellist.

If you were to use focus offhand, you can slam the enemies into a wall, lock them there and then dump iWarden and iZerker on them; you’d still only hit 6-7k – possibly less if you’re running a more balanced build; but you’re probably going to hit every single trash mob in the pull, dealing far more DPS and making a far greater contribution to the pull.

And this is without even looking at how you can leverage your team-mates DPS. Using a staff to spread retribution/aegis/chaos armour/regen/doubling up the AoE might and dumping reflects for your team might sound like a big waste of DPS, certainly you personally will be making smaller numbers; but again, behind these protective wards the frontline DPS guys; especially warriors – will be able to really lay down the pain with less regard for their own safety; while it’s true your goal here is to define a “glass cannon mesmer” – but this is rather like setting out to define a “thief tank”, or “Warrior backstab build”. GW2 classes allow immense flexibility but some classes just don’t lend themselves to certain build concepts.

@ Pyroatheist.9031

You use a staff and a greatsword… you switch to focus sometimes ? Focus and what else ?… Sorry… i just feel like you are combining the benefits for like 4 different builds together. You can’t exchange weapons in combat, neither can you retrait so…
If it’s about changing out of combat… then i’ll take a focus as well… and feedback…

While i will not have… Warden’s Feedback – Focus skills reflect projectiles. Reduces recharge of focus skills by 20%.
and… Temporal Enchanter – Increases the duration of all Glamour skills by 2 seconds.
and… Glamour Master – Glamour skills recharge 20% faster.

I will have about 40% more damage at all times…

At the same time when YOU have these… you lose your healing, and you have 40% lower damage at all times…

You can’t have all of the above, and healing, and the damage… and everything… Since we are talking about weapon switching, not only utility switch… i can do that to…
Between you and me i prefer to have 40% more damage at all times, then to have some very fancy feedbacks… don’t like situational stuff.

You have said so many good things about your build, but that’s like… not just one build. If you switch traits and weapon and utility… that’s another build entirely, if we were playing a game i would say you are cheating.

PS: So… in my build i just take a focus with me, and switch for portal and feedback… now my build doesn’t lack so much support.

Just saying, now you’re just giving the impression of non-accepting criticism… it’s a 2-page long thread where the whole Mesmer community is explaining you why this build is bad, yet you don’t (or do not want to) see the arguments.

Also:

The reason i’ve made this build is because i have over ~ 800 fractals done and i have yet to see a mesmer that was useful. I may call me arrogant or delusional, but trust me… i am neither. I have seen hundreds of mesmers that all seem to share the same… fate.
I look at mesmers, they run around… they put some feedback, then they drop dead…
At lvl 48 fractals… i dodge out of a mob’s way, fear him to heal… mesmer takes agro… i look as the mob’s HP barely moves… then he hits the mesmer, mesmer goes splat.

Nemesis.8593:

The reason i made this build, the reason i branched out into other classes… mesmer for a change. Is because i’ve had only bad experiences with mesmers in PvE, in high level fractals.

I recall this one event that made me think… “that’s it… mesmer is next”.
-snip-
Then i thought to myself… next time i find a shatter mesmer in my high lvl fractal group, i am going to flail him. Then i thought… how come mesmers do so little damage and are so god kitten squishy… Then i thought… maybe they can do high damage, but they didn’t knew how. Mesmer… that’s what i will go over next…

This DO makes you look arrogant. A lot.

And:

-don’t like situational stuff.

You have said so many good things about your build, but that’s like… not just one build. If you switch traits and weapon and utility… that’s another build entirely, if we were playing a game i would say you are cheating.

What? Changing parts of the build on the fly to adapt to encounters and situations is one of the few things left in this game to divide bad/average and skilled/good player.

Are you so tunnel-visioned that can’t think about change up things to perform better for a certain part of content? Or do you really think exists a build to “rule the pve all” w/o even need of touching any part of it from a boss to another?
I’m..i’m…baffled, to say the least.

Again, not meaning to be harsh or personal attack, but this is getting a bit ridicolous…

AndrewSX.3794:

Just saying, now you’re just giving the impression of non-accepting criticism… it’s a 2-page long thread where the whole Mesmer community is explaining you why this build is bad, yet you don’t (or do not want to) see the arguments.

What? Changing parts of the build on the fly to adapt to encounters and situations is one of the few things left in this game to divide bad/average and skilled/good player.

Are you so tunnel-visioned that can’t think about change up things to perform better for a certain part of content? Or do you really think exists a build to “rule the pve all” w/o even need of touching any part of it from a boss to another?
I’m..i’m…baffled, to say the least.

Again, not meaning to be harsh or personal attack, but this is getting a bit ridicolous…

Well… if the “whole” mesmer community explains to me… then i will drop it of course.

Feel free to change what ever you want to fit any and all circumstance, but you call my build bad because it “unchanged” – no weapon change / no utility change (well why not… i can change them on the fly as well) – can’t do what some other build can do by changing. Also… comparing an unchanged on the fly build with the “combined” advantages of a heavily changed build, combined advantages ?…

Yes… my unchanged build doesn’t match the build that keeps changing every 3 seconds… not in utility at least, damage… mmmm… that’s another story.

Damage is what i was going for here in the first place…

So before i drop it… for those who do favor this build, feel free to bring a spare focus and always have feedback on your utility slots in case people ask for it.

Thanks for the feedback.

Nemesis.8593:

@ Pyroatheist.9031

You use a staff and a greatsword… you switch to focus sometimes ? Focus and what else ?… Sorry… i just feel like you are combining the benefits for like 4 different builds together. You can’t exchange weapons in combat, neither can you retrait so…
If it’s about changing out of combat… then i’ll take a focus as well… and feedback…

While i will not have… Warden’s Feedback – Focus skills reflect projectiles. Reduces recharge of focus skills by 20%.
and… Temporal Enchanter – Increases the duration of all Glamour skills by 2 seconds.
and… Glamour Master – Glamour skills recharge 20% faster.

I will have about 40% more damage at all times…

At the same time when YOU have these… you lose your healing, and you have 40% lower damage at all times…

You can’t have all of the above, and healing, and the damage… and everything… Since we are talking about weapon switching, not only utility switch… i can do that to…
Between you and me i prefer to have 40% more damage at all times, then to have some very fancy feedbacks… don’t like situational stuff.

You have said so many good things about your build, but that’s like… not just one build. If you switch traits and weapon and utility… that’s another build entirely, if we were playing a game i would say you are cheating.

PS: So… in my build i just take a focus with me, and switch for portal and feedback… now my build doesn’t lack so much support.

you have 40% more damage, but not 40% more phantasm damage.

thats the main issue here isnt it. all those traits that boost % damage don’t apply to illusion damage.

considering the dps of having 3 phantasms out greatly surpasses any damage you alone can output, i’d rather take good utility and good phantasm damage rather than no utility at all.

also with the right trait lines, you can switch traits without having to retrait, this is what he means by changing traits to fit the encounter. it’s one build that can be retraited out of combat before the encounter to best suit the encounter.

AndrewSX.3794:

Just saying, now you’re just giving the impression of non-accepting criticism… it’s a 2-page long thread where the whole Mesmer community is explaining you why this build is bad, yet you don’t (or do not want to) see the arguments.

Also:

The reason i’ve made this build is because i have over ~ 800 fractals done and i have yet to see a mesmer that was useful. I may call me arrogant or delusional, but trust me… i am neither. I have seen hundreds of mesmers that all seem to share the same… fate.
I look at mesmers, they run around… they put some feedback, then they drop dead…
At lvl 48 fractals… i dodge out of a mob’s way, fear him to heal… mesmer takes agro… i look as the mob’s HP barely moves… then he hits the mesmer, mesmer goes splat.

Nemesis.8593:

The reason i made this build, the reason i branched out into other classes… mesmer for a change. Is because i’ve had only bad experiences with mesmers in PvE, in high level fractals.

I recall this one event that made me think… “that’s it… mesmer is next”.
-snip-
Then i thought to myself… next time i find a shatter mesmer in my high lvl fractal group, i am going to flail him. Then i thought… how come mesmers do so little damage and are so god kitten squishy… Then i thought… maybe they can do high damage, but they didn’t knew how. Mesmer… that’s what i will go over next…

This DO makes you look arrogant. A lot.

And:

-don’t like situational stuff.

You have said so many good things about your build, but that’s like… not just one build. If you switch traits and weapon and utility… that’s another build entirely, if we were playing a game i would say you are cheating.

What? Changing parts of the build on the fly to adapt to encounters and situations is one of the few things left in this game to divide bad/average and skilled/good player.

Are you so tunnel-visioned that can’t think about change up things to perform better for a certain part of content? Or do you really think exists a build to “rule the pve all” w/o even need of touching any part of it from a boss to another?
I’m..i’m…baffled, to say the least.

Again, not meaning to be harsh or personal attack, but this is getting a bit ridicolous…

its a stable DPS-Build and far away from bad, no matter what the ‘whole mesmer community’ brings for arguments. sure, there could be more utility…. but hey, its a DPS Spec. and it fits its role.

Nice work as always nemesis

blutstein.2468:

its a stable DPS-Build and far away from bad, no matter what the ‘whole mesmer community’ brings for arguments. sure, there could be more utility…. but hey, its a DPS Spec. and it fits its role.

You’re missing the point.

Regardless of profession, a glass cannon with 0 utility is justified only by HUGE dmg.
Like warriors.
They do lose everything for dmg? (like this build) They do. But their dps gets crazy.

Even in this setup, instead, the mesmer DPS is not even comparable both for single and multiple targets.
In this case the utility loss has simply not enough dmg in return – that’s it.
The little more dmg of this build (compared to “usual” one) is not worth the loss of all the utility, support and sustain.

It’s glassy, has decent dmg (from a mesmer perspective), but if i have to pick up a DPS member in your team with 0 utility which job will be “kill stuff”… i’d pick a warrior.
For the simple fact that has 5 times the dmg potential, while still offering 0 utility.

blutstein.2468:

its a stable DPS-Build and far away from bad, no matter what the ‘whole mesmer community’ brings for arguments. sure, there could be more utility…. but hey, its a DPS Spec. and it fits its role.

Nice work as always nemesis

Like if this game consisted in winning the World Champions DPS League…

Being a DPS spec doesn’t mean it has to reach the maximum DPS possible.

blutstein.2468:

its a stable DPS-Build and far away from bad, no matter what the ‘whole mesmer community’ brings for arguments. sure, there could be more utility…. but hey, its a DPS Spec. and it fits its role.

Nice work as always nemesis

soon we will see 4 mesmer 1 banner warrior in groups ^^

nemesis, u dont understan, phantasmal main traits tree is unique, because they can be changed in fractals in seconds for more glamour, more dps or healing. after 800 ur run u dont know witch mob next and witch strategy is better? like “oh now harpies, better i take sw/foc. oh now last boss. back to gs”. mb better u go another 800 runs and then try teach us about some 1button builds.
and good DPS build for u is ranger long bow 30/30/0/0/10. press #1 always fun ^^ and foe very far and teammates dont know what u do. btw about teammates, how they respond on ur “dont help team” build?

How about this, lets modify the phantasm build so we can compare what you like “Ultimate Damage”. 10/30/0/25/5 to your build of 30/30/0/0/10. Phantasms aren’t affected by the 3% per illusion or the 4% per mantra. Again, watch your own videos. Even against a boss fight which is 5v1, you still don’t always have 3 illusions up most of the time. In the ascalonian fractal, you usually have 0-2. so realistically I will say AVERAGE of 6% bonus to your auto attack. Since we have still gone 30 into dueling, you can take the mantra 4% trait if you like.

So base attack with your build is 3360 with 6% average bonus auto attack damage and you don’t even use the sword half the time. Base attack with my presented build is 3160 without that 6% BUT with 15% more phantasm damage so the phantasms have 3634 attack. I’m ignoring mantra buffs because each of the builds have it.

So right here, this build already contests your build in the “ultimate damage” category but there’s more. You admit that maybe you should go focus instead of pistol for PvE. This is excellent news and shows your growth as a mesmer. So with a traited focus, there is of course reflects with 4 and 5 but lets ignore that for now. The traited p.warden is now happening 20% more often at a higher base attack than your builds p.warden. Furthermore, with a bit of practice/knowledge of how into the void works, you can start to consistently ball up enemies for your illusionary blenders so that their theoretical 5 targets actually happens. This also buffs your teams AOE DPS. So even with a hybrid between your build and pyro’s, I think it’s safe to say my proposed phantasm build is “MOAR ULTIMATE DEEPS” than yours.

Feedback will also recharge faster and with focus 4/5, you have basically 100% reflections uptime. Then bonus retaliation for when your phants die or regen/vitality is icing on the cake.

“Arrogant ?… i spend 30 minutes defining and argumenting each and every one of my decisions so i can discover and define a glass cannon build…”
30 minutes when some of us are at around 1000h + on our mesmers. Anyone can spend 30 minutes on a build. If you were qualified, you would never have picked halting strike. You failed at creating the ultimate DPS because you don’t even know what all of our traits are capable of.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

How about this, lets modify the phantasm build so we can compare what you like “Ultimate Damage”. 10/30/0/25/5 to your build of 30/30/0/0/10. Phantasms aren’t affected by the 3% per illusion or the 4% per mantra. Again, watch your own videos. Even against a boss fight which is 5v1, you still don’t always have 3 illusions up most of the time. In the ascalonian fractal, you usually have 0-2. so realistically I will say AVERAGE of 6% bonus to your auto attack. Since we have still gone 30 into dueling, you can take the mantra 4% trait if you like.

So base attack with your build is 3360 with 6% average bonus auto attack damage and you don’t even use the sword half the time. Base attack with my presented build is 3160 without that 6% BUT with 15% more phantasm damage so the phantasms have 3634 attack. I’m ignoring mantra buffs because each of the builds have it.

So right here, this build already contests your build in the “ultimate damage” category but there’s more. You admit that maybe you should go focus instead of pistol for PvE. This is excellent news and shows your growth as a mesmer. So with a traited focus, there is of course reflects with 4 and 5 but lets ignore that for now. The traited p.warden is now happening 20% more often at a higher base attack than your builds p.warden. Furthermore, with a bit of practice/knowledge of how into the void works, you can start to consistently ball up enemies for your illusionary blenders so that their theoretical 5 targets actually happens. This also buffs your teams AOE DPS. So even with a hybrid between your build and pyro’s, I think it’s safe to say my proposed phantasm build is “MOAR ULTIMATE DEEPS” than yours.

Feedback will also recharge faster and with focus 4/5, you have basically 100% reflections uptime. Then bonus retaliation for when your phants die or regen/vitality is icing on the cake.

“Arrogant ?… i spend 30 minutes defining and argumenting each and every one of my decisions so i can discover and define a glass cannon build…”
30 minutes when some of us are at around 1000h + on our mesmers. Anyone can spend 30 minutes on a build. If you were qualified, you would never have picked halting strike. You failed at creating the ultimate DPS because you don’t even know what all of our traits are capable of.

Link build ?… his build had half my critical strike damage, and considerable lower critical strike chance. I don’t understand how people keep saying their damage is higher, when their damage stats are lower…

If you link me your build we can take a look at the stats…
Also if you somehow manage to get higher damage, with lower stats… isn’t that called a loophole ?… exploit ?… bug ?… OP ?

Nemesis.8593:

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

How about this, lets modify the phantasm build so we can compare what you like “Ultimate Damage”. 10/30/0/25/5 to your build of 30/30/0/0/10. Phantasms aren’t affected by the 3% per illusion or the 4% per mantra. Again, watch your own videos. Even against a boss fight which is 5v1, you still don’t always have 3 illusions up most of the time. In the ascalonian fractal, you usually have 0-2. so realistically I will say AVERAGE of 6% bonus to your auto attack. Since we have still gone 30 into dueling, you can take the mantra 4% trait if you like.

So base attack with your build is 3360 with 6% average bonus auto attack damage and you don’t even use the sword half the time. Base attack with my presented build is 3160 without that 6% BUT with 15% more phantasm damage so the phantasms have 3634 attack. I’m ignoring mantra buffs because each of the builds have it.

So right here, this build already contests your build in the “ultimate damage” category but there’s more. You admit that maybe you should go focus instead of pistol for PvE. This is excellent news and shows your growth as a mesmer. So with a traited focus, there is of course reflects with 4 and 5 but lets ignore that for now. The traited p.warden is now happening 20% more often at a higher base attack than your builds p.warden. Furthermore, with a bit of practice/knowledge of how into the void works, you can start to consistently ball up enemies for your illusionary blenders so that their theoretical 5 targets actually happens. This also buffs your teams AOE DPS. So even with a hybrid between your build and pyro’s, I think it’s safe to say my proposed phantasm build is “MOAR ULTIMATE DEEPS” than yours.

Feedback will also recharge faster and with focus 4/5, you have basically 100% reflections uptime. Then bonus retaliation for when your phants die or regen/vitality is icing on the cake.

“Arrogant ?… i spend 30 minutes defining and argumenting each and every one of my decisions so i can discover and define a glass cannon build…”
30 minutes when some of us are at around 1000h + on our mesmers. Anyone can spend 30 minutes on a build. If you were qualified, you would never have picked halting strike. You failed at creating the ultimate DPS because you don’t even know what all of our traits are capable of.

Link build ?… his build had half my critical strike damage, and considerable lower critical strike chance. I don’t understand how people keep saying their damage is higher, when their damage stats are lower…

If you link me your build we can take a look at the stats…
Also if you somehow manage to get higher damage, with lower stats… isn’t that called a loophole ?… exploit ?… bug ?… OP ?

Actually, it’s called smart play.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Nemesis.8593:

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

How about this, lets modify the phantasm build so we can compare what you like “Ultimate Damage”. 10/30/0/25/5 to your build of 30/30/0/0/10. Phantasms aren’t affected by the 3% per illusion or the 4% per mantra. Again, watch your own videos. Even against a boss fight which is 5v1, you still don’t always have 3 illusions up most of the time. In the ascalonian fractal, you usually have 0-2. so realistically I will say AVERAGE of 6% bonus to your auto attack. Since we have still gone 30 into dueling, you can take the mantra 4% trait if you like.

So base attack with your build is 3360 with 6% average bonus auto attack damage and you don’t even use the sword half the time. Base attack with my presented build is 3160 without that 6% BUT with 15% more phantasm damage so the phantasms have 3634 attack. I’m ignoring mantra buffs because each of the builds have it.

So right here, this build already contests your build in the “ultimate damage” category but there’s more. You admit that maybe you should go focus instead of pistol for PvE. This is excellent news and shows your growth as a mesmer. So with a traited focus, there is of course reflects with 4 and 5 but lets ignore that for now. The traited p.warden is now happening 20% more often at a higher base attack than your builds p.warden. Furthermore, with a bit of practice/knowledge of how into the void works, you can start to consistently ball up enemies for your illusionary blenders so that their theoretical 5 targets actually happens. This also buffs your teams AOE DPS. So even with a hybrid between your build and pyro’s, I think it’s safe to say my proposed phantasm build is “MOAR ULTIMATE DEEPS” than yours.

Feedback will also recharge faster and with focus 4/5, you have basically 100% reflections uptime. Then bonus retaliation for when your phants die or regen/vitality is icing on the cake.

“Arrogant ?… i spend 30 minutes defining and argumenting each and every one of my decisions so i can discover and define a glass cannon build…”
30 minutes when some of us are at around 1000h + on our mesmers. Anyone can spend 30 minutes on a build. If you were qualified, you would never have picked halting strike. You failed at creating the ultimate DPS because you don’t even know what all of our traits are capable of.

Link build ?… his build had half my critical strike damage, and considerable lower critical strike chance. I don’t understand how people keep saying their damage is higher, when their damage stats are lower…

If you link me your build we can take a look at the stats…
Also if you somehow manage to get higher damage, with lower stats… isn’t that called a loophole ?… exploit ?… bug ?… OP ?

Actually, it’s called smart play.

Well you said 8k damage… and you boosted those numbers quite a bit, you said heal every 3 seconds, when it’s actually 4 seconds +. You also gave a list of benefits that actually never come together at the same time.

So naturally… i would like to see a link.

Nemesis, I said that i really like your work. And still do. But this is getting ridiculous. Trust me on this one: a mantra nuker build will not outdamage the above build.
Forget raw numbers in here.

Ryn.6459:

Nemesis, I said that i really like your work. And still do. But this is getting ridiculous. Trust me on this one: a mantra nuker build will not outdamage the above build.
Forget raw numbers in here.

It surpasses Pyroatheist.9031’s damage, i have tested it… i can provide video of that if you want. I am now waiting for a link from DuckDuckBoom…
Regardless of the outcome… it either won’t surpass my damage, or it will… in which case an imbalance has occurred, and either my build needs to be buffed, or his nerfed…

If you have a build that sacrifices damage traits/stats for utility and still does more damage then it will be addressed. Wouldn’t you agree ?

just a lil test inda mist without any utility couple min ago. this build not kill heavy golem faster than phantasm build 10/30/0/25/5 and 10/15/0/25/20 with same wep spec. so where the truth? better be mantra nuker without any usefull util or phantasm mesmer without uselles util? i repeat, golem die similar on second phantoms atack

drongas.4189:

just a lil test inda mist without any utility couple min ago. this build not kill heavy golem faster than phantasm build 10/30/0/25/5 and 10/15/0/25/20 with same wep spec. so where the truth? better be mantra nuker without any usefull util or phantasm mesmer without uselles util? i repeat, golem die similar on second phantoms atack

You realize you are telling me passive bonuses do nothing right ?…
Edit: this is getting tiresome… if he wants to give me a link to his build then i will give take a look at it, like i said… regardless of the outcome there is something to learn from it. If he doesn’t then that is fine as well…

The only reason i reentered the conversation is because, while i do keep my numbers truthful… others fake theirs.
Any newcomer that has no clue what is going on actually believes you can do 8k with phantasmal warlock (no buffs / help).
I tried the phantasmal warlock with 5 conditions on the target at 113% critical strike damage… it hit for 5k. In his build Pyroatheist.9031 has only 60% critical strike damage, not to mention lower critical strike chance, but hey… a crit is a crit…

So if he hit 8k… i should be hitting an easy 12 ?… Right… i hit 5k… I have seen it with my own eyes. You can’t say it’s not like this, i have tested it… i have seen the numbers…

Nemesis.8593:

Ryn.6459:

Nemesis, I said that i really like your work. And still do. But this is getting ridiculous. Trust me on this one: a mantra nuker build will not outdamage the above build.
Forget raw numbers in here.

It surpasses Pyroatheist.9031’s damage, i have tested it… i can provide video of that if you want. I am now waiting for a link from DuckDuckBoom…
Regardless of the outcome… it either won’t surpass my damage, or it will… in which case an imbalance has occurred, and either my build needs to be buffed, or his nerfed…

If you have a build that sacrifices damage traits/stats for utility and still does more damage then it will be addressed. Wouldn’t you agree ?

Your view of balance and buffing and nerfing is amusingly simplistic. You are treating the mesmer class like a straightforward simple class, something that you can just ram full steam ahead with glass cannon and be useful and do high damage. The mesmer is the most intricate and in-depth class in the game. Our traits are (for the most part) beautifully crafted with interesting synergies that you need to be very familiar with to make the best use of. If you try to just create a build the way you are doing so, you end up wasting a lot of potential.

This damage difference is a perfect example of the intricacies. You ignore the fact that you can get 30% boosts to your phantasm damage with some traits, you can give them permanent fury with some traits, you can do all sorts of interesting things to enhance your survivability and team utility and whatnot at the same time. When you consider all these synergies and utilities, it’s no wonder that your ultra-simplistic glass cannon nuker might end up not being as efficient at doing high sustained damage as a build that actually utilizes the fantastic traits and utilities that mesmer has access to.

Nemesis.8593:

Any newcomer that has no clue what is going on actually believes you can do 8k with phantasmal warlock (no buffs / help).

You don’t do 8k-10k (my highest recorded hit was 14k) with the warlock with no help. You do that in a party situation where there is a heavy condition load on the mobs. This build is supposedly designed for high level fractals or dungeons or whatever. You are in a party for those. If you think that your warlocks are going to pop those damage numbers without party support, then you’ve been completely ignoring what I’ve been telling you (I already know this to be true, obviously enough).

no, im say dmg similar
look math: u have 5 sec to kill mob. ur build phantasm hit 1 time 3k dmg. ur gs hit 3 time in 5 sec. around 1500 each hit (4.5k) again phantom 3k dmg
my build phantoms hit 3500. 3 gs hit 1166. again phantom 3.5k
both hit 10.5k in 5 sec. so i prefer use utility in my build. but sure ur build have place in gw, but not in fractals. sry

Nemesis. the point is that you sacrifice your stats to boost your phantasms (main sourve of damage even in your build) and to get tons of utilities (that will boost your damage and your team damage aswell).

Agreed the 30% damage modifier seems to not be sinking in though many have spoken about it.
@Nemesis, I posted a 10/30/0/25/5 build yesterday in this thread, and DuckDuckBOOM suggested the same trait setup. Here is the link:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Defining-the-glass-cannon-mesmer/first#post2188377

Use the same gear you have for your nuker, but use these traits/utilities. Try it with the duelist, warden, iZerker, and Warlock to compare. Doing this you will at least be able to get a good idea of the damage potential. Or, even better, take this build or Pyro’s into a dungeon with a party and you’ll see it’s intended use.

The reason I posted a simple 10/30/0/25/5 is that it is supposed to be your build modified. Just take 20 out of domination (200 less power) 5 less of illusions (average 6% less damage to your auto attack) and those 25 go into inspiration for 15% more phantasm damage. All dueling traits are the same for the sake of simplicity. The focus in inspiration is traited for. The other by default is for glamours. All armor and foods remain the same. You can look in my previous post for all the math of why it’s better. Stick with 3 mantras if you want as default. So same crit damage as your build. Just 200 power trade for 15% phantasm damage. Do you still need a build because it can’t get much simpler than this?

Balance is based on PvP. A phantasm build is good in 1v1 but doesn’t perform as well in team fights so overall, these builds are “balanced”.

With that in mind, some traits are just better than others and the game isn’t perfectly balanced.
Furthermore, there is also the idea with balance of high risk/high reward or high skill/high reward. Knowing when to reflect, knowing when to cast your p.warden, knowing how to focus pull will result in more overall damage. Being in melee will do more damage than sitting back.

Your build isn’t even new. Look for Lazy Kai’s mesmer build on the forum. It’s lazy…

Edit:

You realize you are telling me passive bonuses do nothing right ?…

The passive bonuses do not affect phantasms. Don’t trust me on that. Go to mists. Grab a steady weapon. Trait 0/30/0/0/10
Leave all traits blank. Look at your average/highest phantasm hit. Now try again with the mantra/illusion traits. See for yourself. Now also look at the auto attack to make sure the traits are working.

You definitely party with wrong mesmers. My usual frac set up is either me, always mesmer, 2 guards, a warrior and either another warrior, or another mesmer. Usually the other mesmer and I are the last to be downed. And we both main sword, so we aren’t even ranged.

The only time I go down very easy is the fire eles in the grawl fractal, which I’m getting better at each time. And I must say, feedback and the 2 glamour cd traits are a must have for grawl frac.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

The reason I posted a simple 10/30/0/25/5 is that it is supposed to be your build modified. Just take 20 out of domination (200 less power) 5 less of illusions (average 6% less damage to your auto attack) and those 25 go into inspiration for 15% more phantasm damage. All dueling traits are the same for the sake of simplicity. The focus in inspiration is traited for. The other by default is for glamours. All armor and foods remain the same. You can look in my previous post for all the math of why it’s better. Stick with 3 mantras if you want as default. So same crit damage as your build. Just 200 power trade for 15% phantasm damage. Do you still need a build because it can’t get much simpler than this?

Balance is based on PvP. A phantasm build is good in 1v1 but doesn’t perform as well in team fights so overall, these builds are “balanced”.

With that in mind, some traits are just better than others and the game isn’t perfectly balanced.
Furthermore, there is also the idea with balance of high risk/high reward or high skill/high reward. Knowing when to reflect, knowing when to cast your p.warden, knowing how to focus pull will result in more overall damage. Being in melee will do more damage than sitting back.

Your build isn’t even new. Look for Lazy Kai’s mesmer build on the forum. It’s lazy…

Edit:

You realize you are telling me passive bonuses do nothing right ?…

The passive bonuses do not affect phantasms. Don’t trust me on that. Go to mists. Grab a steady weapon. Trait 0/30/0/0/10
Leave all traits blank. Look at your average/highest phantasm hit. Now try again with the mantra/illusion traits. See for yourself. Now also look at the auto attack to make sure the traits are working.

Stats effect phantasms… after all this talking i went in game again and tested again just to be sure.
I had my normal build duelist hit 6k+ every single time… then i went into Pyroatheist.9031 build… and in order to get to his critical strike damage and chance i had to remove my rings, necklace and back piece. I had exactly his critical strike chance and critical strike damage… duelist could barely hit 3000…

I did this for about 10 minutes going back and forth while explaining to someone what i am doing and why… because i was a bit frustrated at that point.

skcamow.3527:

Agreed the 30% damage modifier seems to not be sinking in though many have spoken about it.
@Nemesis, I posted a 10/30/0/25/5 build yesterday in this thread, and DuckDuckBOOM suggested the same trait setup. Here is the link:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Defining-the-glass-cannon-mesmer/first#post2188377

Use the same gear you have for your nuker, but use these traits/utilities. Try it with the duelist, warden, iZerker, and Warlock to compare. Doing this you will at least be able to get a good idea of the damage potential. Or, even better, take this build or Pyro’s into a dungeon with a party and you’ll see it’s intended use.

Haven’t tested yours yet… but it seems a bit better then Pyro’s. His had half critical strike damage and considerable lower critical strike chance. He was also healing without healing power, adding conditions without condition damage… and so on…

In this build stat wise you sacrifice critical strike chance but not that much, crit damage is still high… The weapons… not sure how much DPS uptime you can get with them at long range… but at the same time you benefit from the support part.

After i test it i may call it a “worthy sacrifice”. Even though the damage is lower… you get something that compensates.

PS: testing in this mists is not invalid but sometimes it is hard to notice, since damage grows exponentially with higher stats… when you do 8 hits and they all crit at 113% crit damage vs when you do 8 hits with only some of them criting at 50% crit damage, damage goes down by a lot.
Such high stats can’t be obtained in the mists… so… naturally you’ll have to do like 1000 tests and the difference will be small each time, small stat difference.

Easier and more reliable test in my eyes is stat matching + trait matching. I have done a few average hits as my build… then i matched the damage stats + traits of your builds… (didn’t match the healing and survivability bit but that is irrelevant to damage).
The answer is clear.

I think the point Pyro is making is, you could do so much more damage by changing your 7, 8 and 9. An example he already gave is the ettin in harpy fractals. When he throws his boons up, use arcane thievery and then signet of inspiration. Just by doing that, everyone is doing more damage and has better survivability. Even just taking the boons off of the ettin makes it go so much faster. So even just Null Field would be better than those mantras.

The mantras are only helping you.

For the harpies, just changing one for feedback would help, if you have focus traited as well. I have seen harpies do 3k damage to themselves just in one hit, nevermind their rapid fire attack. They nearly kill themselves with that.

It keeps your party members from falling, so they are there to do more damage. All of that combined, I dare say, is more damage than you could do with the matra set up you have.

Nemesis.8593:

Stats effect phantasms… after all this talking i went in game again and tested again just to be sure.
I had my normal build duelist hit 6k+ every single time… then i went into Pyroatheist.9031 build… and in order to get to his critical strike damage and chance i had to remove my rings, necklace and back piece. I had exactly his critical strike chance and critical strike damage… duelist could barely hit 3000…

I did this for about 10 minutes going back and forth while explaining to someone what i am doing and why… because i was a bit frustrated at that point.

He is refering to both Empowered Mantras as well as Compunding Power, which both wont buff up Phantasm Damage. I also went out and tested it.
If you remove items, you will also lose on power did you think about that?
I’m running a 10/30/0/25/5 build with full zerker armor and my iDuelist hits for ~6k aswell (without the bleeding put into the calculations)
Sure my autoattacks are weaker, but do i care? No. Why? Because it does not matter wether my autos hit for 1,3k or 1,7k(sword), they still suck compared to other classes. For example, Warriors do 30k 100b in 2 seconds, followed by a potential 18k whirlwind, a 15k eviscarete and around 15k autoattack chain and axe#2.These ~30% more damage on autoattacks are not worth beeing completely pinned to one build with no benefit to your party at all. And I’m not talking about the regeneration a phantasm build offers, I’m still talking about reflections, aoe condition removal over time, boon sharing, group healing (which i favour the least, since i never need it during dungeons).
As you said in your opening post, you main a necro, not a mesmer. Please take advice from players that have played their class a lot more than you have (pyro for example). You can’t apply the same logic to mesmers that you used for your necro. Necromancers don’t have access to the utilities a mesmer has.

Nemesis,
try the following (keep in mind that is just an exemple):
-go to the mists, and try to kill the npc-thief or the npc-ranger in there, only with reflections (your toon can go naked).

You’ll see how fast she/he goes down (actually is quite hilarious). It will outdamge any other way totry to kill them.

Remember, it’s just an exemple about what people is trying to make you understand: for a mesmer, utilities will outdamage direct damaging stats.

Ryn.6459:

Nemesis,
try the following (keep in mind that is just an exemple):
-go to the mists, and try to kill the npc-thief or the npc-ranger in there, only with reflections (your toon can go naked).

You’ll see how fast she/he goes down (actually is quite hilarious). It will outdamge any other way totry to kill them.

Remember, it’s just an exemple about what people is trying to make you understand: for a mesmer, utilities will outdamage direct damaging stats.

I understand this and don’t deny it… but that’s only vs projectiles. Direct damage, any non projectile spell, any DOT effect… waves don’t work either right ?…
So you would do the same or more damage if the entire game had only projectiles, but it doesn’t… so direct damage is more consistent…

Agony.3542:

Nemesis.8593:

Stats effect phantasms… after all this talking i went in game again and tested again just to be sure.
I had my normal build duelist hit 6k+ every single time… then i went into Pyroatheist.9031 build… and in order to get to his critical strike damage and chance i had to remove my rings, necklace and back piece. I had exactly his critical strike chance and critical strike damage… duelist could barely hit 3000…

I did this for about 10 minutes going back and forth while explaining to someone what i am doing and why… because i was a bit frustrated at that point.

…

It’s not a difference from 1.3k to 1.7k… it’s more like 1.3k… 3.4k + DPS uptime since you are at 1200 range.
Pyro’s build has different stats combinations so it’s not that squishy, my getting some gear off i actually matched his stats… So no… didn’t lose any power.

Listen guys… i never said my build is the best… the first video i ever made on youtube, the first thing i ever said was “there is no best damage build”, only “best at”.
Every few days people come up to me and say “so what’s the best build out of all you made for the necromancer”. And i just roll eyes and start explaining… there is no best damage build, only best at… glass cannon has highest single target damage, the conditionmancer has the highest AoE damage, hybrid is in the middle… you decide.

I never said my build is the best, i only said that the builds that were made by the people that said my build is the worst ever… those builds are falsely advertised.
Every here and then a little false advertising… with a wall of “bonuses” that never come together at once, with unreal damage that is never achievable at those stats… but the most important bit is the fact that someone claimed that they do the same if not more damage then me and provides more utility and is less squishy.
That more damage = unreal numbers that are not correct + situational reflects (not every single mob in this game has projectiles)… and likes i said, the amount of utilities advertised is… you know.

It’s like internet companies advertise “internet speeds of up to 100000MB/s” and you get 1MB/s, then you phone them and say “dude wtf…” and they politely make you read the contract… “UP TO blabla speed”.

My build does what it advertises… it may not fit other people’s playstyles… but it is the glass cannon, and it is correctly made… and keeping in tune with the glass cannons, the support it brings to the table is “acts as a debuffer”… = vulnerability, and can stack quite a bit of it.
In principle theory and practice it acts and respects all the characteristics of a glass cannon…

Some of you may think that the extra damage you get compared to a damage-support hybrid is not worth it… how about you plea for some more damage from ArenaNet, so that full glass cannon builds are more viable, and mesmers will no longer be “taken into groups just for utility”.

Nemesis.8593:

Agony.3542:

Nemesis.8593:

Stats effect phantasms… after all this talking i went in game again and tested again just to be sure.
I had my normal build duelist hit 6k+ every single time… then i went into Pyroatheist.9031 build… and in order to get to his critical strike damage and chance i had to remove my rings, necklace and back piece. I had exactly his critical strike chance and critical strike damage… duelist could barely hit 3000…

I did this for about 10 minutes going back and forth while explaining to someone what i am doing and why… because i was a bit frustrated at that point.

…

It’s not a difference from 1.3k to 1.7k… it’s more like 1.3k… 3.4k + DPS uptime since you are at 1200 range.
Pyro’s build has different stats combinations so it’s not that squishy, my getting some gear off i actually matched his stats… So no… didn’t lose any power.

Listen guys… i never said my build is the best… the first video i ever made on youtube, the first thing i ever said was “there is no best damage build”, only “best at”.
Every few days people come up to me and say “so what’s the best build out of all you made for the necromancer”. And i just roll eyes and start explaining… there is no best damage build, only best at… glass cannon has highest single target damage, the conditionmancer has the highest AoE damage, hybrid is in the middle… you decide.

I never said my build is the best, i only said that the builds that were made by the people that said my build is the worst ever… those builds are falsely advertised.
Every here and then a little false advertising… with a wall of “bonuses” that never come together at once, with unreal damage that is never achievable at those stats… but the most important bit is the fact that someone claimed that they do the same if not more damage then me and provides more utility and is less squishy.
That more damage = unreal numbers that are not correct + situational reflects (not every single mob in this game has projectiles)… and likes i said, the amount of utilities advertised is… you know.

It’s like internet companies advertise “internet speeds of up to 100000MB/s” and you get 1MB/s, then you phone them and say “dude wtf…” and they politely make you read the contract… “UP TO blabla speed”.

My build does what it advertises… it may not fit other people’s playstyles… but it is the glass cannon, and it is correctly made… and keeping in tune with the glass cannons, the support it brings to the table is “acts as a debuffer”… = vulnerability, and can stack quite a bit of it.
In principle theory and practice it acts and respects all the characteristics of a glass cannon…

Some of you may think that the extra damage you get compared to a damage-support hybrid is not worth it… how about you plea for some more damage from ArenaNet, so that full glass cannon builds are more viable, and mesmers will no longer be “taken into groups just for utility”.

then why would anyone ever play a warrior?

“Defining the glass canon mesmer” sounds pretty much like saying your build is “the best” or something very close to it and it really is not.
Some people already pointed it out, that by giving your threads titles like these you just attract discontent. Maybe if you use less sensational Titles people here would be more willing to accept the build.
Your build is actually far away from it from a dungeon-oriented standpoint, since again and again and again you are missing all the utilities a mesmer has.
Vuln stacking, where? Sword clones do it, but if you use sword clones your damage will suffer a lot. Phantasms deal around 75% of your damage. And besides mesmer builds can stack vulnerability this way, its by no means specific to your build (a shatter build can vul stack even better….), that argument is invalid.
The damage advertised by these builds is not “unreal” the phantasms in a 10/30/0/25/5 build will hit as hard as your phantasms, but on top of that, they can be made more survival (so that not every single skill in this game 1shots them), and buff the party with permanent regeneration (=useful in another way).

That more damage = unreal numbers that are not correct + situational reflects (not every single mob in this game has projectiles)

I already said my autoattacks deal less damage than yours, but my phantasms deal the same. Idk if a lot of people here just c&p builds and didn’t watch for the kind of armor they were using or were real with that. Just go out there, with your GC gear and use 10/30/0/25/5, with Fury for phantasms, and 15% extra damage for phantasms and 20% less cd on pistol and sword and look how much damage your phantasms will deal. If you wear clerics or smth like that their damage will be lower, sure, never even once doubted that.
Regarding reflections: Sure not every mob has projectiles to reflect, but in a lot of boss fights there is a use for reflections.
Giganticus Lupicus is the best example for this, but there are others too. Pyro also mentioned the ones in fractals, I myself never visted fractals, but I have a lot of exp in terms of Dungeons (the “harder” ones, not AC lol).
And even there you can see a trend. Does the dungeon contain bosses where reflections work? Go get a mesmer (eg. arah, cof – although its not hard at all), are there no great things to reflect? Meh, a GC guardian or another warrior will do better. This does not matter for the casual group of course, but for some more experienced groups it will.
Another thing regarding the damage, you said in your video, that you use GS as your main Weapon, why so? If you want to be able to deal as much damage as possible you need to use the sword. It deals about 20% more damage and has access to better, more consistent phantasms. I dont know if you read the thread about iZerker beeing a buggy blooper, but his damage is definitely not consistent at all.

It’s not a difference from 1.3k to 1.7k… it’s more like 1.3k… 3.4k + DPS uptime since you are at 1200 range.

I was refering to sword, not greatsword in this regard. I did a lot of tests, both in the mist, and at cursed shore, although the mist are better suited for comparison, since you get access to a huge amout of mobs with the same armor, that dont fight back. Also any ratio between builds in Mists can pretty much be applied to PvE. Both tests came to the same result, the autochain of sword deals around 40% more damage. An average of 900,900,1500 with 10/30/0/25/5 and an average of 1300/1300/2100 when looking only at crits. Now before you bother trying to make an argument for you having a higher critchance/critdamage- I used the same gear for both instances, my pve gear. I don’t have as many ascended items as you tough. It is a difference, but it’s not worth in Dungeons/FOTM

I never said my build is the best, i only said that the builds that were made by the people that said my build is the worst ever… those builds are falsely advertised.

No they`re not, they contain a some personal preferences tough, for example knights or valkyrie gear, but can be used with full zerker aswell and then ~75% of their damage will be the same as yours, granted you are both able to keep up 3 phantasms at a time.

I never said my build is the best, i only said that the builds that were made by the people that said my build is the worst ever… those builds are falsely advertised.
Every here and then a little false advertising… with a wall of “bonuses” that never come together at once,

Noone said that, you just assumed it. The point some people here want to tell you is that mesmer live and die by their ability to adapt to certain situations.
Of course there wont be condition pressure, lots of projectiles, juicy buffs to steal/share and the need for continous healing all the time at once, but when there is a need for that, these advertised builds can indeed deliver that, they can adapt, your build cant adapt. If there’s a need for chain reflections, your build is almost useless, if theres a need for group condidtion removal, your build is almost useless and so on. It’s just able to deal damage, and its really bad in that compared to other classes.
Now what is the meaning of “glass canon”? Its pretty much focusing on offensive stats, while neglecting defensive stats. Your build does that, sure. But the problem here is, that in order to be a “good glasscanon” you need to do a bit more than just do the above. You need to be useful in a group. Now a warrior GC can do that by just hitting the mob, but warriors will also bring a lot to the party aswell. Even in full zerker they have three great banners, for greater justice, on my mark, shake it off and so on…
Guardians can do that too, they deal more damage than your mesmer does, but also have ways to grant your group aegis, relfect attacks, heal conditions, grant stability….
These builds are labled as glasscanons too, but its obvious that they do more than just damage. They buff the damage of the whole party. In a direct way, by applying some nice buffs like might or fury, and in an indirect way (=the way mesmer is good) by allowing the group to bypass some boss mechanics due to reflections, condition removal, stability…
Why I don’t cry for more damage? Well it’s simple, if they buff mesmer on one end, they will defently nerf them on another end. For example if they turn up the damage output on sword MH they will nerf shatters, since a build like osis shattercat will deal far to much damage then. Also we don’t really need too much of a buff. Maybe some more mobility would be nice, a slight buff to timewarp (maybe lower cd?) would also be quite appreciated, but in terms of direct damage output a buff there would just cause loses on other fronts, which we don’t really want, do we? KITTEN YOU KITTEN BALANCING AROUND KITTEN PVP, KITTEN YOU!
Positive Feedback
Overall this build is not bad at all occasions. As you have shown in your video you are able to wreck open world mobs really fast. Even tough open PvE is neither FOTM nor Dungeon, I kind of liked the way it kills mobs when just roaming around, maybe with some tweaks, like focus instead of pistol for more mobility it can make the basis for a good event roaming build.
edith says: this guy was trying to use spoiler tags for easier understanding, but spoiler tags didn’t want to function properly, so this guy gave up.

Nemesis.8593:

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

Edit:

You realize you are telling me passive bonuses do nothing right ?…

The passive bonuses do not affect phantasms. Don’t trust me on that. Go to mists. Grab a steady weapon.Trait 0/30/0/0/10
Leave all traits blank. Look at your average/highest phantasm hit. Now try again with the mantra/illusion traits. See for yourself. Now also look at the auto attack to make sure the traits are working.

….

% damage passive bonus traits do not directly boost your stats so those passive bonuses do nothing since phantasms draw directly from your primary stats of power/crit chance/crit damage. The exceptions are Empowered Illusions & Phantasmal Strength since they explicitly say illusions/phantasm damage. You were testing the wrong thing. On a side note, if the mesmer has fury it increases the mesmer crit chance which stacks with the phantasm having fury for a total of 40% crit chance bonus to the phantasms.

Stop comparing other builds like pyros to your build. Of course a full zerker build is going to do more damage. Traits on the other hand are not always as straight forwards, especially for the mesmer. What you should be comparing is another full zerker build to your build. This is why I mentioned the proposed build. It’s YOUR build with 25 traits changed. So how about you adress the main portion of my previous post.

Since you insist on a link, I give you an even more optimized DPS while also bringing more utility with minimal swapping since that seems too painful for you.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsdRl4zionRTlGaNJxZGQf5oFQqgqL9A35W2A-jwxAYLBRCCAZJiJvioxW4KiGruGT5SEVLFQEjBA-e

Since phantasms are doing most of you damage and they now do more damage and happen more often, this build will do more damage than yours. Also, more focus 4 for stacking enemies in balls so that your aoe will actually hit 5 targets. IF that isn’t an option, I’ve left the pistol trait in the build as well. There is a mantra heal that is decent so, why not grab that for 16% bonus to auto attacks instead of your builds 12%. This also means you get to remove conditions twice with your mantra heal instead of your sigil of generosity at random. Again, fury double stacks for phantasms and in a high level fotm group, someone in your group should be giving fury to everyone. Therefore, I’ve picked a few different different foods/sigils (bloodlust & fire) to boost power/crit damage rather than precision. Since this is about optimal DPS in high lvl fotm, these are valid changes and something you should consider in your build since 120% crit chance is the same as 100%. In the end, your phantasms will still have 100% crit chance while the build has 3533 power, 118% crit damage with 30% more phantasm damage (4592 effective attack) instead of 15% and some utility. To keep things simple, no traits or mantras need to change other than feedback on occasion. You can swap pistol/focus for what feels better for each fight. So out of the box, this modified build is better than yours.

However, you should be swapping your traits/utilities depending on each fight. By the time you get to fotm 10+ the fights don’t change. You know what the enemies do and should plan accordingly.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

Nemesis.8593:

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

Edit:

You realize you are telling me passive bonuses do nothing right ?…

The passive bonuses do not affect phantasms. Don’t trust me on that. Go to mists. Grab a steady weapon.Trait 0/30/0/0/10
Leave all traits blank. Look at your average/highest phantasm hit. Now try again with the mantra/illusion traits. See for yourself. Now also look at the auto attack to make sure the traits are working.

….

% damage passive bonus traits do not directly boost your stats so those passive bonuses do nothing since phantasms draw directly from your primary stats of power/crit chance/crit damage. The exceptions are Empowered Illusions & Phantasmal Strength since they explicitly say illusions/phantasm damage. You were testing the wrong thing. On a side note, if the mesmer has fury it increases the mesmer crit chance which stacks with the phantasm having fury for a total of 40% crit chance bonus to the phantasms.

Stop comparing other builds like pyros to your build. Of course a full zerker build is going to do more damage. Traits on the other hand are not always as straight forwards, especially for the mesmer. What you should be comparing is another full zerker build to your build. This is why I mentioned the proposed build. It’s YOUR build with 25 traits changed. So how about you adress the main portion of my previous post.

Since you insist on a link, I give you an even more optimized DPS while also bringing more utility with minimal swapping since that seems too painful for you.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsdRl4zionRTlGaNJxZGQf5oFQqgqL9A35W2A-jwxAYLBRCCAZJiJvioxW4KiGruGT5SEVLFQEjBA-e

Since phantasms are doing most of you damage and they now do more damage and happen more often, this build will do more damage than yours. Also, more focus 4 for stacking enemies in balls so that your aoe will actually hit 5 targets. IF that isn’t an option, I’ve left the pistol trait in the build as well. There is a mantra heal that is decent so, why not grab that for 16% bonus to auto attacks instead of your builds 12%. This also means you get to remove conditions twice with your mantra heal instead of your sigil of generosity at random. Again, fury double stacks for phantasms and in a high level fotm group, someone in your group should be giving fury to everyone. Therefore, I’ve picked a few different different foods/sigils (bloodlust & fire) to boost power/crit damage rather than precision. Since this is about optimal DPS in high lvl fotm, these are valid changes and something you should consider in your build since 120% crit chance is the same as 100%. In the end, your phantasms will still have 100% crit chance while the build has 3533 power, 118% crit damage with 30% more phantasm damage (4592 effective attack) instead of 15% and some utility. To keep things simple, no traits or mantras need to change other than feedback on occasion. You can swap pistol/focus for what feels better for each fight. So out of the box, this modified build is better than yours.

However, you should be swapping your traits/utilities depending on each fight. By the time you get to fotm 10+ the fights don’t change. You know what the enemies do and should plan accordingly.

Now this i like… you gave up on the bigger GS auto-attack in favor of some reflect… damage stats are high, damage means it will be the same, at least from phantasms, you get utilities and feedback.
What’s the main damage source though ?… duelist was my favorite… few things beat stacking 3 of these amazing snipers at 1200 range.
If you could fit me the duelist in this build i would literally delete my video… but i’m guessing who ever designed the build system made sure you can’t really get duelist and focus reflects…

Anyway… i like it… it’s not a pure glass cannon but it’s a kitten nice build regardless.

More numbers because now I’m in a “number mood.”
These are your stats and (mine)
~ 3360 attack with phants at 3864 (3533 with phants at 4592)
81% *Critical strike chance (assuming you also have fury, this should be 100% for you and 120% for phant while my build is 81% and 101%)
*113%Critical strike damage (you have two exotics so 118 is actually the same)
~ 1839 Armor (The same but my build has more reflection/condition removal)
~ 16,169 Health (17582)
Auto attack multipliers 12% + average of 6% (16%)

So phantasm damage, my build wins hands down. Same crit chance and damage with more power. Specifically, (4592)/3360 x 100% = 119% more damage.
Let’s compare auto attack.
3360 with 18% bonus & 100% crit chance of 113% damage = (3360 × 1.18) x (1+1(1.13+0.5)= 10427.4
3533 with 16% bonus & 81% crit chance of 113% damage = (3533 × 1.16) x(1+ .81(1.13+0.5)) = 8197.6

These two numbers are unmodified by armor and will be much lower. However, I also have sigil of fire (The flame blast has a 1.0 damage coefficient and cannot critically hit.) This is a 30% chance of aoe on a 5 sec cd and the damage coefficient in this case is 4000 every ~6 seconds or once every 3 gs auto attacks. So on average, 8197.6+4000/3 (aoe) vs 10427.4. Assuming single target, 10427/(9530) x 100% = 109% more damage on your auto attacks.

SO 119% more damage from my phantasms while 109% more damage on your auto attack and phantasms are doing most of the damage. I’m also less squishy and bring more utility. Hands down, your build is not ultimate in cannon. Ultimate glass? sure but not cannon.

For duelist and focus reflects, go scepter/focus/pistol and turn your auto attack off or sword/focus/pistol and sit back with sword 2 for defense or be brave =)

Nemesis.8593:

If you could fit me the duelist in this build i would literally delete my video… but i’m guessing who ever designed the build system made sure you can’t really get duelist and focus reflects…

In a team pve situation, in a build with high phantasm crit chance, you want to stay away from the duelists out of courtesy to your team.

Duelists do an 8 shot unload, and in a high crit build, this will generally stack between 7 and 8 bleeds on the target. You get 2 duelists, and you’re hitting 13-16 bleeds continuously. This is great for your personal dps, but if you have a competent condition class in your party, their dps is now getting crippled, and since your bleeds hit for far less than theirs, your party dps is also getting lowered.

The 10/30/0/25/5 build is a strong phantasm build that I use regularly (without mantras, because that’s silly). A few weapon tweaks and you get my Overpowered PvP Phantasm Build. I will also run it in some dungeons.

However, since the majority of my PvE content is fractals, the 20 points in illusions to get phantasmal haste for the wardens is extremely important. There are several fractals and fights where having that phantasmal haste is really key, and so even if I could do higher damage in general without it, taking that trait is worth it for the possibility of needing it.

Pyroatheist.9031:

The 10/30/0/25/5 build is a strong phantasm build that I use regularly (without mantras, because that’s silly)

He is responding well to big numbers so leave the mantras in the discussion for now. Once we begin the conversion, then we talk more about mantras =)

Pyroatheist.9031:

Nemesis.8593:

If you could fit me the duelist in this build i would literally delete my video… but i’m guessing who ever designed the build system made sure you can’t really get duelist and focus reflects…

In a team pve situation, in a build with high phantasm crit chance, you want to stay away from the duelists out of courtesy to your team.

Duelists do an 8 shot unload, and in a high crit build, this will generally stack between 7 and 8 bleeds on the target. You get 2 duelists, and you’re hitting 13-16 bleeds continuously. This is great for your personal dps, but if you have a competent condition class in your party, their dps is now getting crippled, and since your bleeds hit for far less than theirs, your party dps is also getting lowered.

The 10/30/0/25/5 build is a strong phantasm build that I use regularly (without mantras, because that’s silly). A few weapon tweaks and you get my Overpowered PvP Phantasm Build. I will also run it in some dungeons.

However, since the majority of my PvE content is fractals, the 20 points in illusions to get phantasmal haste for the wardens is extremely important. There are several fractals and fights where having that phantasmal haste is really key, and so even if I could do higher damage in general without it, taking that trait is worth it for the possibility of needing it.

The DPS is not actually crippled, i have tested long ago the bleeds stacks… but i wasn’t even able to post my results because of the method i used to get my results.
Suffice to say that 2 bleeders are ok, 3 are not…

What i did was bug the first boss in SE, and auto-attack it with scepter 1… average bleeding stacks 23, killing time 4 minutes.

I got a second necromancer with the exact same build and stats… we auto-attacked together… we took each other’s bleeding stacks you could say, yet the killing time was exactly 2 minutes 10 seconds.

I got a 3rd necromancer with the exact same build and stats… we auto-attacked together… took us 4 minutes and a few seconds to kill the boss.

Nemesis.8593:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Nemesis.8593:

If you could fit me the duelist in this build i would literally delete my video… but i’m guessing who ever designed the build system made sure you can’t really get duelist and focus reflects…

In a team pve situation, in a build with high phantasm crit chance, you want to stay away from the duelists out of courtesy to your team.

Duelists do an 8 shot unload, and in a high crit build, this will generally stack between 7 and 8 bleeds on the target. You get 2 duelists, and you’re hitting 13-16 bleeds continuously. This is great for your personal dps, but if you have a competent condition class in your party, their dps is now getting crippled, and since your bleeds hit for far less than theirs, your party dps is also getting lowered.

The 10/30/0/25/5 build is a strong phantasm build that I use regularly (without mantras, because that’s silly). A few weapon tweaks and you get my Overpowered PvP Phantasm Build. I will also run it in some dungeons.

However, since the majority of my PvE content is fractals, the 20 points in illusions to get phantasmal haste for the wardens is extremely important. There are several fractals and fights where having that phantasmal haste is really key, and so even if I could do higher damage in general without it, taking that trait is worth it for the possibility of needing it.

The DPS is not actually crippled, i have tested long ago the bleeds stacks… but i wasn’t even able to post my results because of the method i used to get my results.
Suffice to say that 2 bleeders are ok, 3 are not…

What i did was bug the first boss in SE, and auto-attack it with scepter 1… average bleeding stacks 23, killing time 4 minutes.

I got a second necromancer with the exact same build and stats… we auto-attacked together… we took each other’s bleeding stacks you could say, yet the killing time was exactly 2 minutes 10 seconds.

I got a 3rd necromancer with the exact same build and stats… we auto-attacked together… took us 4 minutes and a few seconds to kill the boss.

Well, your testing is wrong, because the bleeding stack mechanics are not a hidden thing. Additionally, your testing is very obviously wrong because with 3 necromancers it took longer than with 2 necromancers.

Bleed stacks go up to 25, and then stop. If half of those bleed stacks are low damage ones from your phantasms, then the necromancer won’t be doing proper damage. With additional bleed stacking, the necromancer can push out the low damage stacks, but since your phantasms keep attacking, they will continue to push out the necromancer’s stacks.

Suffice to say, bleeds don’t stack higher than 25, and that’s the limit you have to work in. Duelists cripple the effectiveness of other condition classes in your party, and that’s not really a point for discussion.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

More numbers because now I’m in a “number mood.”
These are your stats and (mine)
~ 3360 attack with phants at 3864 (3533 with phants at 4592)
81% *Critical strike chance (assuming you also have fury, this should be 100% for you and 120% for phant while my build is 81% and 101%)
*113%Critical strike damage (you have two exotics so 118 is actually the same)
~ 1839 Armor (The same but my build has more reflection/condition removal)
~ 16,169 Health (17582)
Auto attack multipliers 12% + average of 6% (16%)

So phantasm damage, my build wins hands down. Same crit chance and damage with more power. Specifically, (4592)/3360 x 100% = 119% more damage.
Let’s compare auto attack.
3360 with 18% bonus & 100% crit chance of 113% damage = (3360 × 1.18) x (1+1(1.13+0.5)= 10427.4
3533 with 16% bonus & 81% crit chance of 113% damage = (3533 × 1.16) x(1+ .81(1.13+0.5)) = 8197.6

These two numbers are unmodified by armor and will be much lower. However, I also have sigil of fire (The flame blast has a 1.0 damage coefficient and cannot critically hit.) This is a 30% chance of aoe on a 5 sec cd and the damage coefficient in this case is 4000 every ~6 seconds or once every 3 gs auto attacks. So on average, 8197.6+4000/3 (aoe) vs 10427.4. Assuming single target, 10427/(9530) x 100% = 109% more damage on your auto attacks.

SO 119% more damage from my phantasms while 109% more damage on your auto attack and phantasms are doing most of the damage. I’m also less squishy and bring more utility. Hands down, your build is not ultimate in cannon. Ultimate glass? sure but not cannon.

I don’t calculate damage modifiers so i don’t miss out on stuff, i calculate raw visible damage AT a “preset” stat value. So for me it’s an average of… this much, at these stats…

Yes mate i already said i like the build, you dropped the DPS uptime of greatsword in favor of reflect uptime. That means you will do way more damage vs mobs that have projectiles also provide support during those times, i have less damage overall… but at all times.

Yes it is nice, i like it… what i wanted was to make the most glass cannon glass cannon… with the only support being acting as a debuffer by applying stacks of vulnerability while interrupting, which you do quite often because of pistol 5 and 3 mantra interrupts…. the extra vulnerability you bring to the party on top of the up to 26% extra damage from your greatsword… as well as the fact that you can attack at all times from 1200 range… makes my build a cannon, a glass cannon.

But yes… your phantasms do as much damage as mine, if not a bit more (although mine hit more on mobs that have vulnerability on them, which i can provide with the interrupts)… but you lose vulnerability… you can reflect… which does more damage vs mobs that have projectiles and less against anything without projectiles.

Sword – pistol / Sword – focus in your build… gives you everything you advertised… lacks GS DPS uptime.
Some would argue that in the current PvE meta yours would be more efficient… To that i say: “mine should be buffed…”.
They wanted to have viable diverse builds… guardian mustn’t always be tank, mesmer mustn’t always be support… necromancer mustn’t always be conditions…

If you come and say that my extra DPS uptime from GS is not worth it compared to the reflect you bring to a group in a real scenario… then i demand more greatsword DPS… so you are faced with a real decision.

One last time… the build you have shown me now, i approve of and i like… I see what you lose and what you gain.
A few i saw before where “sometimes you do this… other times you do this…” i don’t, and i always preach against them. All the benefits in those builds together would overshadow any of my builds… but those benefits never truly come together, so you are stuck sucking and everything…