Guild Wars 2

I really enjoy playing with my great sword a lot more on mesmer than concentrating on shredding my illusions. Will i be at a disadvantage if i spec 30, 30, 0, 10, 0? I would really enjoy it if i would be at the same level of other mesmers using my greatsword.

The below assumes PvE. It should also be applicable to PvP but as I do not do much of that I cannot say for certain.

You do not need to spec for Shattering. A Phantasm build is perfectly viable with Mesmer and can be just as competent kittenter builds.

The most common Phantasm builds are Berserker (GS and Sword/Focus or Sword/Pistol) gear with 20/20/0/20/10 or 20/20/0/25/5. The only required Utility skill is Signet of Illusions to keep your Phantasms alive longer.

Basically just throw out your Phantasms and let them wreak havoc. Try to pay attention to their health if you can to shatter them when they are low. If this proves too difficult (lack of Illusion health bars sucks for Phantasm builds) then just shatter everything when your Phantasm skills are back up.

There was a more detailed Phantasm guide around here somewhere, but I’m not sure where (might have been on gw2guru).

Yes PVE. So for that build all i need to do is just maintain my phantasms and just use my greatsword?

Even if you don’t want to spec into shattering, you should consider putting 5 points into the illusions tree. The cooldown on all illusion skills can really help.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Illusionists_Celerity

If you want to run greatsword with sword/pistol, look at 20/30/0/10/10 – the 10 points in illusions can be used to give you a damage buff for each illusion you have out. The 30 points in dueling can give you sword/pistol cool down traits plus a utility trait like dodge on clone creation.

For greatsword with sword/focus, try 20/20/0/20/10 – with the points in dueling for sword cooldown and dodge on clone creation, the 20 points in inspiration for the focus cooldown. This trait allows your focus skills to reflect projectiles which is really helpful. the other 10 points in inspiration can help with a variety of things. If your playing phantasms alot, take 5 points out of illusions and put 5 points into inspiration for the 15% phantasm damage trait. (so 20/20/0/25/5). The additional 10 in the power line isn’t always needed, a little more variety in the traits can help your build versatility without lowering DPS heavily.

Just a couple of basic thoughts anyway, once you get used to the traits everything becomes easy to understand. Good luck.