Guild Wars 2

Hi all!
I started playing with my mesmer again, because i find the new GS skin very good.
I started looking up builds, thats good for high level fractals and dungeons.
Although no one who plays the game seriously as mesmer seems to dislike Greatsword.
I totally understand that its DPS is significantly lower than a sword + x. ( and its utility as well )
I want to use Greatsword, but i want to be efficient in high level fractals. Now i dont say i would use it most of the time, but i want to use it.
What do you think about the Greatsword and can it perform well in fractals or is it very situational ?

Very situational.

I ONLY use GS in dungeons/fractals when the fight is ranged and I have no other choice. I enjoy GS too, but the damage and melee stacking capabilities are not good.

Run with friends and they won’t care what build you use, but if you want to be efficient and work best with pugs I suggest not using GS.

GS is fine in open world PVE though.

I agree with Kirito. You don’t want to camp Greatsword. It should never be your go-to camp weapon. The only time I will camp on my Greatsword is if it’s a ranged fight where I have 3 Phantasms up (typically 2 Duelists 1 Berserker). Otherwise, I run S/S + F and run melee.

All the fractal fights where you want to use Greatsword:
Molten BOSS Fractal if your group doesn’t want to melee the Berserker. Ask before you enter boss pit.
Grawl Lava Fractal (Both boss fights), rotate between Sword + Pistol (if vs Grawl) or Sword + Focus (if vs Elemental).
Dredge Fractal (final boss fight), rotate between Sword + Pistol and Greatsword. Use Feedback if vs Dredge or slot a Mantra for more personal DPS if vs Elemental.
Mossman, what I do is jump onto the house (or tree) and spawn 3 Duelists, then camp Greatsword or rotate onto Sword and Blurred Frenzy.
Ascalon Boss, Greatsword to fight his Greatsword for all the Greatswordy Greatswordness.
Cliffside Boss fights.

But, for the most part, I don’t use a Greatsword. Those examples I just listed although plentiful, don’t make up the majority of the run.

Esplen.3940:

Grawl Lava Fractal (Both boss fights), rotate between Sword + Pistol (if vs Grawl) or Sword + Focus (if vs Elemental).

I love running full melee on that fight, lots of fun haha.

Kirito.9207:

Esplen.3940:

Grawl Lava Fractal (Both boss fights), rotate between Sword + Pistol (if vs Grawl) or Sword + Focus (if vs Elemental).

I love running full melee on that fight, lots of fun haha.

Me too, I run a silly build of 0/4/0/6/4 with Signet of the Ether (or Mantra of Restoration), Feedback, Null Field, Blink. Grab improved glamour duration + reduced cooldown (or just reduced cooldown + Mender’s Purity with MoR) and traited Warden.

2 Wardens with Phantasmal Haste + TC + Feedback and the only thing that you have to worry about are his swoopity attacks.

Although I tend to get kicked out of groups for falling off the cliff, running to the boss, and starting to solo him while everyone is running the gauntlet. I hold GS as my secondary for when the OozeGrublings spawn because I can shove them away and then manage them with reflects easier.

It was never my intention to camp with it Esplen, since i have to adapt if i want to do high level fractals and i just wanted an honest opinion about the Greatsword ( thank you for that ), since every ( even serious ) guides treat Greatsword like it doesnt even exist.

Well, I listed the areas where I find it useful in Fractals. For dungeons, I rarely ever use them unless I have to range something.

I’ve seen some people keep it as their secondary on all sets for good shovebacks onto walls (but you have to be careful to not just shove everytime you can sigh)

Esplen.3940:

Well, I listed the areas where I find it useful in Fractals. For dungeons, I rarely ever use them unless I have to range something.

I’ve seen some people keep it as their secondary on all sets for good shovebacks onto walls (but you have to be careful to not just shove everytime you can sigh)

That’s a lame excuse though since Focus can pull mobs into a wall also.

Yeah, it’s very frustrating when another Mesmer pushes mobs away from the group lol..

Hey, I don’t use it to shove into walls, but the possibility is still there. Also, GS5 is better than Focus4 IF you can position it because it’s not centered on the ground. Sometimes, because of hills, Focus4 will only drag an enemy a step or two whereas the GS will actually shove them.

Not enough of a reason to justify me running Greatsword all the time, but it’s something to note.

And I basically dread running dungeons/fractals with other Mesmers. 99% of the time they run perma-traited Wardens (or untraited if it’s actually useful for them to be traited) without PH, don’t stagger Wardens, and don’t pay attention to animations.

Of course, I’m being hypocritical because I suck at feedback timings for tons of bosses that have things to reflect, such as Old Tom, Champion Ettin, Ascalon Captain, etc. But I’m really good at Lupicus and Alphard, go figures.

Also, I suck at using Time Warp. Can I just get an Elite Mantra, pliss?

Oh right, that other 1% are people like DnT Mesmers where they know their stuff and are either better than me or actually carrying their own weight.

Esplen.3940:

I agree with Kirito. You don’t want to camp Greatsword. It should never be your go-to camp weapon. The only time I will camp on my Greatsword is if it’s a ranged fight where I have 3 Phantasms up (typically 2 Duelists 1 Berserker). Otherwise, I run S/S + F and run melee.

All the fractal fights where you want to use Greatsword:
Molten BOSS Fractal if your group doesn’t want to melee the Berserker. Ask before you enter boss pit.
Grawl Lava Fractal (Both boss fights), rotate between Sword + Pistol (if vs Grawl) or Sword + Focus (if vs Elemental).
Dredge Fractal (final boss fight), rotate between Sword + Pistol and Greatsword. Use Feedback if vs Dredge or slot a Mantra for more personal DPS if vs Elemental.
Mossman, what I do is jump onto the house (or tree) and spawn 3 Duelists, then camp Greatsword or rotate onto Sword and Blurred Frenzy.
Ascalon Boss, Greatsword to fight his Greatsword for all the Greatswordy Greatswordness.
Cliffside Boss fights.

But, for the most part, I don’t use a Greatsword. Those examples I just listed although plentiful, don’t make up the majority of the run.

You 100% do not need greatsword in dredge fractal final boss (just watch for the tells and dodge/block/reposition). Mossman I don’t like triple duelists because wardens and curtain can reflect the dancing dagger so I prefer melee sets there. Cliffside, no way. Mesmer is next to warrior in level of forgiveness for meleeing archdiviner. Hell, you can solo melee archdiviner even in ranging pugs thanks to low cooldown evades, blocks and vigour – in my experience I normally get dumped on by the adds rather than the boss.

Everything else I’ve always melee’d, but in melee groups so I’d have no idea what the berserker or ashym are like solo melee. Meleeing imbued shaman isn’t too bad either, even if everyone else is ranging because of the survivability of mesmer.

I haven’t even got sigils on my greatsword that’s how little I use it.

I know the one fight I use GS every time is the troll in HoTW.

Melee it. I’m pretty sure you can blurred frenzy the leaps and just LoS the autoattacks.

When they changed that troll I went in to HOTW, soloed up to troll and just started practicing it.

Of course, my connection was garbage and I got my face kicked in because dodging the leap required specific timing.

maha.7902:

Everything else I’ve always melee’d, but in melee groups so I’d have no idea what the berserker or ashym are like solo melee.

Attempting to melee the berserker if your party isn’t on-board is both an exercise in futility and likely to get you killed. The problem is that he jumps to the farthest target, so you’ll basically run to melee range and then just as you get there…he jumps to the other side of the arena. Rinse and repeat that for the rest of the fight, so you’re dodging fireballs and spending the whole time chasing the sucker back and forth. It’s pretty horrid.

maha.7902:

You 100% do not need greatsword in dredge fractal final boss (just watch for the tells and dodge/block/reposition). Mossman I don’t like triple duelists because wardens and curtain can reflect the dancing dagger so I prefer melee sets there. Cliffside, no way. Mesmer is next to warrior in level of forgiveness for meleeing archdiviner. Hell, you can solo melee archdiviner even in ranging pugs thanks to low cooldown evades, blocks and vigour – in my experience I normally get dumped on by the adds rather than the boss.

Everything else I’ve always melee’d, but in melee groups so I’d have no idea what the berserker or ashym are like solo melee. Meleeing imbued shaman isn’t too bad either, even if everyone else is ranging because of the survivability of mesmer.

I haven’t even got sigils on my greatsword that’s how little I use it.

Wardens get wrecked version Mossman, but if they do get their reflects off, it’s great. I drop 3 Duelists because with 6/4/0/0/4, they’re basically 25 permanent stacks of bleed and easy dps without having to re-cast. Versus Bloomhunger, however, I always get 3 Wardens out.

As for the Dredge boss, if you melee him, he will most likely stop to attack you, causing him to not run to the next oil pit, causing the entire party to get slowed down. Sure, I’ll swap and melee him on the final spike, but for the most part I’m only on my Sword to drop a Phantasm then swap off (or maybe BF for a dodge). The DPS gain you get for going melee on a Sword is non-existent because you’re not in the party “buff range” which is one of the main reasons for running Sword. Additionally, since you have to keep managing your position and the bosses position + animations, you end up putting in a lot of work for no dps gain (unless you count the party dps from a few stacks of Vuln, in which case go run War or Engi), as opposed to just lolcamping GS.

It definitely is possible to melee nearly everything, but it’s not always practical. Mossman it can be practical to melee if you know the fight well, but Dredge isn’t practical at all.

As for the Dredge boss, if you melee him, he will most likely stop to attack you, causing him to not run to the next oil pit,

He has a debuff. When it flickers, make your way to the next oil.

The DPS gain you get for going melee on a Sword is non-existent because you’re not in the party “buff range” which is one of the main reasons for running Sword

If your party is ranging, I think it’s safe to assume they won’t even be buffing each other, so you don’t lose anything.

Additionally, since you have to keep managing your position and the bosses position + animations, you end up putting in a lot of work for no dps gain

> blurred frenzy or dodge dredge suit stab attacks
> feedback bombs
> blurred frenzy ground pound

OR

> get behind ice ele when doing ice cone attack
> dodge away when doing PbAoE agony attack
> dodge or frenzy stalactite AOEs

…. it’s not rocket science.

It definitely is possible to melee nearly everything, but it’s not always practical. Mossman it can be practical to melee if you know the fight well, but Dredge isn’t practical at all.

Dredge is entirely practical to melee, get out of your comfort zone, suck it up if you die and just learn it. obal has videos if you don’t know what the tells are.

From my experience, it’s not good to melee both the bosses in dredge. Between people applying cripple and chill on the bosses for no reason to AI causing them to stop and attack (yay Mesmers!), it’s really a lot more effort than it’s worth. Additionally, you’re spending a lot more effort to do no more damage than you would get for being on a Greatsword (unless, of course, he stops to kill your Greatsword Phantasm) and you’ll most likely want to be clearing his Defiance which is a pain to do in PuGs.

Of course if you’re in a dedicated group, do whatever you want. I don’t care. I’m just saying, most of the time, it’s more effective/efficient to just sit back and be a total n00bcake.

Esplen.3940:

you’ll most likely want to be clearing his Defiance which is a pain to do in PuGs.

There are consumables, that let you shave off 5 defiance stacks every 5 seconds or less.

I’m pretty sure they can be interrupted (their heal) through defiant unless they made a stealth “fix” to it.

Between people applying cripple and chill on the bosses for no reason to AI causing them to stop and attack (yay Mesmers!), it’s really a lot more effort than it’s worth.

The boss is either trying to attack you, making cripple and chill irrelevant, or they’re trying to chase someone else and the cripple and chill makes it easier to pursue them yourself.

Additionally, you’re spending a lot more effort to do no more damage than you would get for being on a Greatsword

Well sure, if you want to condemn yourself to mediocrity then go ahead and make no effort to better your gameplay. If I wanted to brain afk bosses I would do world bosses, when I do instances I pull my weight.

and you’ll most likely want to be clearing his Defiance which is a pain to do in PuGs.

….I don’t see how this is relevant in the range vs. melee argument. If anything, melee is better because the extra CC on OH pistol and OH sword allows you better control of defiant. If you expect PUGs to smash interrupts you can just bring the boss down to 1 stack then do two CCs at once (daze mantra, pistol 5 or sword 4) to interrupt a skill before the pugs do anything stupid.

Of course if you’re in a dedicated group, do whatever you want. I don’t care. I’m just saying, most of the time, it’s more effective/efficient to just sit back and be a total n00bcake.

It’s less brain intensive to sit back. If I’m going to be doing two year old content I’d rather actually have fun doing it and challenging myself rather than brain afk pewpew.

YMMV, but I’m still not seeing a reason not to melee besides sheer laziness or unwillingness.

Well you can keep arguing over something, but keep in mind the skill level of the OP while you go on arguing.

Do not forget about the scepter. It’s the ranged single target dps weapon with a good phantasm unlike the GS (sinlge target!). Also it has a higer dps at low range than the GS.

In general in GW2 as long as you can go melee, stay melee for more dps. If you can’t just go ranged. It’s simple.

Scepter has no Phantasm.

Yet Pistol/Sword offhands do.

To be honest I never melee dredge fractal bosses because I would be instantly flamed…

Depends on the fractale level and organisation. It’s doable, if really organized, even lv50.

GS is best illusion spamming non condition weapon
the second best aoe weapon.
gives huge cripple uptime.
Best push/pull combination with focus
Has Boon strip

Some other unlisted fractals uses:
-Svanir shaman
Spam 3 iduelist under the farthest wall.
Camp with GS since he won t kill any of those 3 for the Whole fight.

-svanir ice elemental
Spam shatter to kill top part

-dredge
Having aoes is useful to kill dredges. (less since patch).

-Cliffside:
crippling boss is good

-uncategorized 3 minibosses:
Ettin won t kill iduelists if placed correctly.

-taumanova
the boss seems not good at dealing with phantasms also you don t want to melee this.

-bloomhunger
someone has to kill spirits
If you lack a staff ele, mesmer will be the best choice.

TLDR:
When mechanics can be avoided by stacking and dpsing like most dungeons, you don’t use GS (in most cases you don t even need 2 weaponsets)

When dungeon are harder you want GS for many reasons.
another example is TA aetherpat.

First reason to not use GS is most “dungeon elitists” can only understand what they saw on youtube/forum.
If you have a GS even if you save the day many times and carry everyone, will think you are bad because you have a GS.
It happens for everything not documented by PvE guilds not only mesmer GS.

LordByron.8369:

GS is best illusion spamming non condition weapon

So why does illusion spamming matter in dungeons?

LordByron.8369:

the second best aoe weapon.

Cleave on sword gives you all the aoe you need in dungeons, there’s no need for more than that.

LordByron.8369:

gives huge cripple uptime.

I’m…not entirely sure why you’re worrying with cripple in dungeons. You’ve got cripple/immob on sword anyway.

LordByron.8369:

Best push/pull combination with focus

You should only need 1 pull, and the focus provides that.

LordByron.8369:

Has Boon strip

So does sword. Every third autoattack. Clones do it too, so that’s an added bonus.

LordByron.8369:

-Svanir shaman
Spam 3 iduelist under the farthest wall.
Camp with GS since he won t kill any of those 3 for the Whole fight.

Or you could spam 3 iDuelists and then melee with sword and do far higher damage than camping with greatsword.

LordByron.8369:

-svanir ice elemental
Spam shatter to kill top part

Or you could melee it while casting phantasms and do far higher damage than you could camping greatsword and shattering.

LordByron.8369:

-dredge
Having aoes is useful to kill dredges. (less since patch).

Except it’s more useful to be able to pull the dredge into a corner with focus, and then simply cleave them down with sword and the rest of your team. You’re not soloing this, remember.

LordByron.8369:

-Cliffside:
crippling boss is good

Crippling the boss does nothing. It’s not like he’s moving fast running around the map. He’s walking slowly and every now and then does a large leap attack…which won’t be stopped by cripple.

LordByron.8369:

-uncategorized 3 minibosses:
Ettin won t kill iduelists if placed correctly.

Which is why you place iDuelists, and then go in and melee, since he won’t kill you if you play well instead of camping greatsword and doing no damage.

LordByron.8369:

-taumanova
the boss seems not good at dealing with phantasms also you don t want to melee this.

This is actually a boss I’d bring a greatsword on in pug parties…but only as a backup if all of the tiles around it get popped. You still melee it until that happens.

LordByron.8369:

-bloomhunger
someone has to kill spirits
If you lack a staff ele, mesmer will be the best choice.

Not sure how you arrived at this conclusion. Mesmer’s primary job at bloomhunger is to stack iWardens and make sure that it’s covered in reflects. You can let pretty much any other class take care of the spirits just fine. If you’re actually that antsy about killing them, you can take mantra of pain and use that.

LordByron.8369:

TLDR:
When mechanics can be avoided by stacking and dpsing like most dungeons, you don’t use GS (in most cases you don t even need 2 weaponsets)

When dungeon are harder you want GS for many reasons.
another example is TA aetherpat.

TL;DR: If you’re good enough to dodge attacks using your dodge button and blurred frenzy, then you don’t need a greatsword and you can melee encounters.

LordByron.8369:

First reason to not use GS is most “dungeon elitists” can only understand what they saw on youtube/forum.
If you have a GS even if you save the day many times and carry everyone, will think you are bad because you have a GS.
It happens for everything not documented by PvE guilds not only mesmer GS.

If you’re at the skill level where you need to camp greatsword to survive, you’re not going to be saving the day, that’s just not going to happen.

Fay.2357:

LordByron.8369:

GS is best illusion spamming non condition weapon

So why does illusion spamming matter in dungeons?

LordByron.8369:

the second best aoe weapon.

Cleave on sword gives you all the aoe you need in dungeons, there’s no need for more than that.

LordByron.8369:

gives huge cripple uptime.

I’m…not entirely sure why you’re worrying with cripple in dungeons. You’ve got cripple/immob on sword anyway.

LordByron.8369:

Best push/pull combination with focus

You should only need 1 pull, and the focus provides that.

LordByron.8369:

Has Boon strip

So does sword. Every third autoattack. Clones do it too, so that’s an added bonus.

LordByron.8369:

-Svanir shaman
Spam 3 iduelist under the farthest wall.
Camp with GS since he won t kill any of those 3 for the Whole fight.

Or you could spam 3 iDuelists and then melee with sword and do far higher damage than camping with greatsword.

LordByron.8369:

-svanir ice elemental
Spam shatter to kill top part

Or you could melee it while casting phantasms and do far higher damage than you could camping greatsword and shattering.

LordByron.8369:

-dredge
Having aoes is useful to kill dredges. (less since patch).

Except it’s more useful to be able to pull the dredge into a corner with focus, and then simply cleave them down with sword and the rest of your team. You’re not soloing this, remember.

LordByron.8369:

-Cliffside:
crippling boss is good

Crippling the boss does nothing. It’s not like he’s moving fast running around the map. He’s walking slowly and every now and then does a large leap attack…which won’t be stopped by cripple.

LordByron.8369:

-uncategorized 3 minibosses:
Ettin won t kill iduelists if placed correctly.

Which is why you place iDuelists, and then go in and melee, since he won’t kill you if you play well instead of camping greatsword and doing no damage.

LordByron.8369:

-taumanova
the boss seems not good at dealing with phantasms also you don t want to melee this.

This is actually a boss I’d bring a greatsword on in pug parties…but only as a backup if all of the tiles around it get popped. You still melee it until that happens.

LordByron.8369:

-bloomhunger
someone has to kill spirits
If you lack a staff ele, mesmer will be the best choice.

Not sure how you arrived at this conclusion. Mesmer’s primary job at bloomhunger is to stack iWardens and make sure that it’s covered in reflects. You can let pretty much any other class take care of the spirits just fine. If you’re actually that antsy about killing them, you can take mantra of pain and use that.

LordByron.8369:

TLDR:
When mechanics can be avoided by stacking and dpsing like most dungeons, you don’t use GS (in most cases you don t even need 2 weaponsets)

When dungeon are harder you want GS for many reasons.
another example is TA aetherpat.

TL;DR: If you’re good enough to dodge attacks using your dodge button and blurred frenzy, then you don’t need a greatsword and you can melee encounters.

LordByron.8369:

First reason to not use GS is most “dungeon elitists” can only understand what they saw on youtube/forum.
If you have a GS even if you save the day many times and carry everyone, will think you are bad because you have a GS.
It happens for everything not documented by PvE guilds not only mesmer GS.

If you’re at the skill level where you need to camp greatsword to survive, you’re not going to be saving the day, that’s just not going to happen.

1) it matters for:
-distortion
-giving targets to some bosses
-defiant stripping
-signet heal

2) you can t Always stack……try to pug fractals 40+ and tell me how often you see stacking.

3) sword+GS is more cripple+immob.
You need that

4) experience more with GS and you’ll learn maybe
I would agree on CoE…. and easy stuff like that.
But there is way more in the game
For example you can push+pull the same target for long distance….Aetherpath without the guardian corner “tactic” is an example where a single mesmer makes the difference.

5) i love dunegon pros with unlimited evades and without level 49isntability

6 and more) tired to answer…try to use the GS and you will learn
I would even ask you to show me how good you are without GS in a lvl 49-50 pug fractals, but i’m sure you won t accept like almost any ant GS player out there.

mostly mistaking the ability of some fixed party+builds ability to trivialize most mechanics for personal skill.

Its a pity it doesn t work with any party comp+pug.
That is what you should be able to play.

LordByron.8369:

-snip-

I’ll let colesy pick up this one…

P.S: few things useful:

I knew some players using the “camping with GS” excuse.
They usually can only copy youtube run videos, and judge a player by its equip rather by what he does.

They are totally blind to any strategy not approved by forum/youtube,

The first of them opening an antiGS thread saying only bad mesmers use GS, few days after opened a thread to look for a pve guild because was uncapable of completing istances with pugs
(obviously pug’s fault)

Good mesmers have EVERY weapon with them, tests them and see where they works (even torch, staff and scepter).
Lazy players copy youtube and think what they see can’t be improved.

LordByron.8369:

P.S: few things useful:

I knew some players using the “camping with GS” excuse.
They usually can only copy youtube run videos, and judge a player by its equip rather by what he does.

They are totally blind to any strategy not approved by forum/youtube,

The first of them opening an antiGS thread saying only bad mesmers use GS, few days after opened a thread to look for a pve guild because was uncapable of completing istances with pugs
(obviously pug’s fault)

Good mesmers have EVERY weapon with them, tests them and see where they works (even torch, staff and scepter).
Lazy players copy youtube and think what they see can’t be improved.

Usually the average ppl in MMO-s are lazy to swap/bring weapons, utilities during dungeons and think that if they are kiting all day they are doing nothing wrong.
Before i created this thread i was bringing couple of weapons for different fights, even if i end up not using them.
I’m glad i created this thread and i can pretty much summ this up like this:
There are two kind of ppl :
1. Who says you can melee anything and GS is almost useless.
2. Who says GS can BE useful as a secondary weapon.
Honestly i hate the first type of ppl i just described, since 90% of the players are average and they even bully everyone if they do only 1 thing wrong.

1) it matters for:
-distortion
-giving targets to some bosses
-defiant stripping
-signet heal

Bosses basically never target clones. And you can fully strip a boss of defiant in decent time without use of distortion. Sword 4 has a low cooldown, traiting harmonious mantras gives you three charges of daze too.

2) you can t Always stack……try to pug fractals 40+ and tell me how often you see stacking.

I’ve done high level fractals with people who aren’t “elite” and we can stack things just fine.

3) sword+GS is more cripple+immob.
You need that

Not really. There’s exceptions like Mossman and Archdiviner, but cripple isn’t overly important, especially not to take greatsword.

4) experience more with GS and you’ll learn maybe
I would agree on CoE…. and easy stuff like that.
But there is way more in the game
For example you can push+pull the same target for long distance….Aetherpath without the guardian corner “tactic” is an example where a single mesmer makes the difference.

I literally can’t think of any example you’d want to pull and push a target. This is ignoring the fact that pushing forces you to sit on a low DPS weapon the next 10 seconds.

5) i love dunegon pros with unlimited evades and without level 49isntability

Everyone is fallible, but you can still melee bosses with a pretty high success rate.

I knew some players using the “camping with GS” excuse.
They usually can only copy youtube run videos, and judge a player by its equip rather by what he does.

Except it’s people like me who are the ones making the youtube run videos. You can tell a lot by what a player has equipped, for example if a warrior zones in with sword+axe get ready to have a complete dead weight on your team.

I’m glad i created this thread and i can pretty much summ this up like this:
There are two kind of ppl :
1. Who says you can melee anything and GS is almost useless.
2. Who says GS can BE useful as a secondary weapon.
Honestly i hate the first type of ppl i just described, since 90% of the players are average and they even bully everyone if they do only 1 thing wrong.

If you didn’t want to be told the truth then why make the thread? You don’t need GS, but you want to use it. If you want to use it, go ahead. Nobody is stopping you. If you want to be efficient, then you’re going to have to give it up.

maha.7902:

1) it matters for:
-distortion
-giving targets to some bosses
-defiant stripping
-signet heal

Bosses basically never target clones. And you can fully strip a boss of defiant in decent time without use of distortion. Sword 4 has a low cooldown, traiting harmonious mantras gives you three charges of daze too.

you didn t test enough, there are some you really WANT more targets.
And where sword will just kill your phantasms

So you keep all phantasms alive you can and replace any istantly with a clone.

Another thing that sw/X-sw/Y people doesn t understand is the shared cooldown on 1-3.

Did i mention izerker is the best option against most structures?
And i guess you melee even sieges in ascalon fractal, because your iwarden will just sit there doing nothing.

2) you can t Always stack……try to pug fractals 40+ and tell me how often you see stacking.

I’ve done high level fractals with people who aren’t “elite” and we can stack things just fine.

Prove it

3) sword+GS is more cripple+immob.
You need that

Not really. There’s exceptions like Mossman and Archdiviner, but cripple isn’t overly important, especially not to take greatsword.

And uncategorized trio, and cptain ashym if for any reason manage to put sword out and someone died (something you keep in mind when you pug… unless you ragequit at first problem).

4) experience more with GS and you’ll learn maybe
I would agree on CoE…. and easy stuff like that.
But there is way more in the game
For example you can push+pull the same target for long distance….Aetherpath without the guardian corner “tactic” is an example where a single mesmer makes the difference.

I literally can’t think of any example you’d want to pull and push a target. This is ignoring the fact that pushing forces you to sit on a low DPS weapon the next 10 seconds.

DId you play fractal 3 months ago?
Did you play TA aetherpat before people found a way to trivialize mechanics?
Could add more
But i don t want to help lazy players :|

Everyone is fallible, but you can still melee bosses with a pretty high success rate.

You are officially invited to a fractal PUG run (means 5 pugs, not 4 guildies and 1 pug like most intend) to prove it.

The fact i have more than 500 runs (see number of pristines) and seen only 2 non friends parties, full melee, suggests me you are wrong XD

for example if a warrior zones in with sword+axe get ready to have a complete dead weight on your team.

Just an example.
We are in arah.
I zone in with my sword+axe pure GS build use skill 4 and then switch to GS.

And i wonder what would ve you said if you looked at a mesmer going CoE with a GS…
Yet i know at least 4 parts where GS was/is better than sw/x,sw/Y

As i said, too many players look at equipment and not at what happens during a fight.