Ill be the first to admit.. I loathe the greatsword.
I tried to give every weapon a fair chance, and some left me pleasantly surprised immedietly (Sword, Focus, Staff) some took practice or had to grow on me (Torch, Pistol, Scepter)
But the greatsword? One of my least favorite phantasms, little room for creativity on the attacks.. and so ungodly overpopulated on my server when I was leveling. The weapon has just always left a sour taste in my mouth that no amount of candy/alcohol can cleanse.
I know Im a little biased, but I can almost never squeeze the GS into a build (with the exception of the War Maestro) without yearning for another weapon. So I was wondefing about alternate opinions; do you prefer the GS over other weapons? Why or why not?
I don’t hate the GS but I very very rarely ever use it.
The fact that the knock back doesnt really face your direction is my number one reason for disliking it. Strafing and the knock back don’t go well together and I’m rarely not circle strafing.
I love it. The great sword has one thing going for it that is range. If you play the game like a ranged caster GS is just well GREAT. If you can stay at max range of GS chances are you CAN’T be hit by the other guy.
I’m in the same boat. i respect it’s AoE DPS capabilities, reliability and usefulness at range (Not to mention how awesome the skins look). But i hate how unimaginatively direct it is.
I tend to use it as my ranged swap when the party doesn’t need staff boons, for it’s additional AoE DPS, and to snipe bosses when melee isn’t an option; but i much prefer to be up close and personal with my sword/focus
Don’t like it at all.
I use the GS only if i need quick bursty power dmg at max range – wvw and few DG encounters for example.
Otherwise, the steady dmg and protection/utility/comboing of the Staff are much better imo.
(welp, aside the big hit of latest patch to Chaos Armor.)
The spike damage is very impressive, and with sigil of fire can do nice aoe damage.
Love it for the concept of dealing more dps the farthest you are >.<
I d like a buff to GS3 in boon stripping btw :/ at least for pve
Hate with passion. It is about as interesting as warriors rifle.
1 direct damage skill.
2 direct damage skill with minor aoe effect.
3 direct damage skill with minor aoe effect, trivial utility via the boon removal.
4 direct damage skill with moderate aoe effect and moderate utility via cripple.
5 slightly improved version of warriors rifle butt, but with less damage.
(edited by Master of Timespace.2548)
Its the only long range wep thats got the ability to slow opponets so you can kill em while they run away, try chasing kills with staff (lol).
Since IZerker fix its also one of the strongest phantasms we got. I think its a good wep, but its long range only, in close fights most other weps are better choices.
The burst from zerker into a mirror image shatter is death to most everything. It has its place but mostly as a Zerg in WvW sniper. It’s the only ranged weapon we have to effectively take out seige. Also when paired with rabid gear and sigil of doom is a nasty little fella for bleed damage and the poison.
I feel most folks don’t like it due to the max range=max damage issue. It’s hard to control max range effectively while using the GS. Even in dungeons it’s hard. I like it but not for most of my builds.
Its the only long range wep thats got the ability to slow opponets so you can kill em while they run away, try chasing kills with staff (lol).
True, chaser monkeys always use the noob stick.
I absolutely love it, the phantasm hits like a truck. 6 might from #2 is always welcome, and the AoE knockback is amazing for use against thieves with shadow refuge, as well as for interrupt procs to get bountiful interruption boons. Been using it with sword+pistol in both wvw and spvp and it has helped me massacre most things i come across.
Spatial surge is a nice autoattack, I dont think the damage reduction if you go closer is fair since it already has low defensive capabilities. I mean, staff is a strong defensive weapon and its better the closer you are increasing the offensive aspect.
Mirror blade is one of my favourite skills, combo finisher, very low cd, clone production, might/vulnerability stacks and great damage. I have some screens of 9-10k damage against lvl 80 in wvw (with iElasticity). Its satisfying.
Mind stab is better with the aftercast buff but it could be more useful. Its full of nice suggestions about it but well its still the same.
Phantasm is strong and can really mess up people when it crits for a good amount.
iWave is both funny to use and useful. Id like more damage (against crippled foes?) but maybe im asking too much.
When you cant go melee or you dont want to its arguably our best weapon.
I love the GS — best 1200m ranged wep imho.
The GS is not a melee weapon — if you try to use it under 600m you need to rethink your strategy. Switch to your second weapon set in this range.
I run GS and Staff in WvW with a hybrid build and it works great. Although with the nerf to Chaos Armor I may drop staff.
I’m currently using GS to level my Mesmer, and I find it absolutely fantastic in that area. As pointed out previously, iBerserker and shatters can absolutely melt PvE mobs. However, I doubt that I’ll be using it endgame. It has the damage, but it is a very straightforward weapon, and that’s not how I want to play. Just a personal preference though.
Greatsword is an amazing mesmer weapon, easily my favorite.
The auto-attack does instant damage from 1200 range, and it hits nice and hard.
Berserker > Mirror Blade > Auto-Attack > Shatter can down a glassy target from 1200 range sometimes before they can even react.
It also has a 1200 range cripple, a cone knockback and a boon remover. It creates it’s phantasm and clones right next to your target which synergizes quite nicely with shatters.
While the auto attack damage falls off significantly the closer you are, mirror blade’s damage drastically increases the closer you are (in a 1v1 anyhow).
About the only thing GS needs in my opinion is a bit of tweaking on mind stab. It’s not a bad ability, but the radius could be a bit larger, maybe remove two boons instead of one, or a cool down reduction. A small buff to mind stab and I think the weapon would be perfect.
(edited by Defcon.8509)
very powerful, but kinda boring to use.
love it for DEs and world bosses, but most other weapons are more enjoyable/interesting to play………staff, sword/focus, sword/torch. if scepter’s auto attack was faster, even it would be a more engaging weapon.
I miss back in beta when the laser sounds were much much louder and obnoxious. IMA FIRIN’ MAH PURPLE LAZAH!
It’s my primary weapon in wvw. iBerseker is awesome verse a zerg. All the other skills are highly effective as well.
At 1200 meters nothing beats the GS. You can even auto attack beyond 1200 by repeatedly jamming the #1 key. Add in a Sup Sigil of Fire and it’s pretty epic.
It’s pretty much mandatory when zerging in WvW for karma and kills. You need the insta-hit, 1200m laser to get your tags.
For 1v1, switch to your secondary weapon set. We have lots of great close-range options.
I like it a lot. I’m using it plus scepter/pistol with the specific goal of mostly fighting from range in WvW.
Many of the main points have been made, but here are a couple notes.
- Attack 1 pierces and is not a projectile. The creativity in using it is to try to hit multiple targets while managing range.
- Attack 2 has might stacks as mentioned. Since you often do supportive builds, this is nice (whether you get the might yourself and then share or share by throwing the sword in and bouncing off allies). I find that sometimes I’m able to get the clone to create at a target on top of a wall in WvW with this attack even when I don’t have a great angle – kind of creative.
- Attack 3 is so-so. The interesting part is trying to hit multiple targets. If you have sigil of fire on and you hit multiple targets, it gives you multiple changes to proc. And they are all close enough to be affected.
- Berserker is great phantasm. I don’t know that there’s so much creativity here. Sometimes you can knock someone into a wall and then unleash berserker on them. But it’s not clear there’s a lot of creativity with all the phantasms.
- Attack 5 wave is fun. I’ve knocked people off of cliffs with it. I’ve knocked people off catapults. I’ve knocked over defenders trying to run into a tower. It has a reasonable chance to interrupt skills.
Overall, greatsword seems like the best AoE option.
I love the greatsword. Without it I’d probably delete my Mesmer, but with it I love her. It makes archers much easier for me to deal with and can cause damage to melee enemies before they get close up on me.
It has the best auto, iwave is amazing, izerker does the job now and mirror blade is great n spammable. The only garbage skill it has is mind stab and 4/5 good skills on a weapon is pretty good in my book. Its my 2nd fav after staff because staff with chaos storm/phase retreat is hot.
It has the best auto, iwave is amazing, izerker does the job now and mirror blade is great n spammable. The only garbage skill it has is mind stab and 4/5 good skills on a weapon is pretty good in my book. Its my 2nd fav after staff because staff with chaos storm/phase retreat is hot.
Boon removal on a weapon, will never not use it.
LOVE!
beam aoutoattack? ground target aoe attack? aoe ranged phantasm?
3 skills you can unload on a 1200 ranged target no matter what is in between.
best. focus fire weapon. ingame.
it just does not work with hybrid. its best defence is its offence so go for it or leave it.
GS is a pile of crap. Worst long range weapon in the game. It has the weakest autoattack out of comparable weapons, autoattack is channeled which makes it suck when trying to keep distance. It deals 3 hits of damage which makes it suck vs any retal. Skill 2 is good damage but it will bounce to clones and buff them with might, which is useless. Skill 3 is useless. Skill 4 is a good phantasm in theory, but it has a delay that makes it dodgeable and in pve killeable by mobs. Skill 5 is ok, but insufficient to keep enemies at 1200 range.
Whoever came up with damage scaling with distance on autoattack should be banned from working as a designer ever again.
It has the best auto, iwave is amazing, izerker does the job now and mirror blade is great n spammable. The only garbage skill it has is mind stab and 4/5 good skills on a weapon is pretty good in my book. Its my 2nd fav after staff because staff with chaos storm/phase retreat is hot.
Boon removal on a weapon, will never not use it.
Its not a reliable source of boon removal and there are better skills for almost every content (try to clear CoE golem boons with mind stab). I use it more for the aoe aspect than for the boon removal and you know, its already a quite small aoe.
Its not a BAD skill but when the others are amazing you notice the difference.
While i dont agree completely with ManCaptain’s post im also wondering if the damage scaling of spatial surge is really needed.
(edited by Levitas.1953)
I use it for most things like farming and aoe tagging in WvW and for that purpose, it’s great. But staff is still closer to my heart and will be forever. I’m just sad ANet hates staff mesmers.
It has the best auto, iwave is amazing, izerker does the job now and mirror blade is great n spammable. The only garbage skill it has is mind stab and 4/5 good skills on a weapon is pretty good in my book. Its my 2nd fav after staff because staff with chaos storm/phase retreat is hot.
Boon removal on a weapon, will never not use it.
its one boon removed, ONE… If its that low it should at least steal them and it doesn’t. One of the worst if not the worst mesmer weapon skill in the game… As i said one million times, Mind Stab should remove three boons or steal 1 boon+damage a little bit increased or damage increased by at least 20% and automatically hit your target (as it was in beta)
GS is a pile of crap. Worst long range weapon in the game. It has the weakest autoattack out of comparable weapons, autoattack is channeled which makes it suck when trying to keep distance. It deals 3 hits of damage which makes it suck vs any retal. Skill 2 is good damage but it will bounce to clones and buff them with might, which is useless. Skill 3 is useless. Skill 4 is a good phantasm in theory, but it has a delay that makes it dodgeable and in pve killeable by mobs. Skill 5 is ok, but insufficient to keep enemies at 1200 range.
Whoever came up with damage scaling with distance on autoattack should be banned from working as a designer ever again.
Agree on weapon damage scaling for sure. This mechanic should never be on an auto attack, neverrrrrrrrr. The three hits from spatial surge may be bad against reta but its awesome for your clones bleed stacking so i’d say i like the three hits instead of one such as on a long bow.
I like its abilities. I HATE the autoattack sound, though. So annoying to listen to over and over again.
i love it, to be honest i love all our weapons (except torch phantasm) however i am working on a GS + S/F build at the moment for wvw/spvp and pve and so far so good, tweaking a lot of things at the mo including traits here and there but sooner or later i will definitely post it as it surprisingly has a lot of defense.
I don’t care for the Great Sword much. In wvw it’s a good weapon to keep handy, in my opinion, but I rarely if ever use it .
Do I enjoy firing pink laser beams out of a massive sword at 1200 range? Yes, yes I do.
Honestly, it’s one of the reasons I chose a Mesmer for my main.
Separate from any aesthetic preferences I have, I find greatsword to be the least mobile weapon available to the Mesmer and I feel quite a bit more vulnerable when I use it over staff or even scepter. So I understand why many people don’t enjoy using it. It’s superb for chasing people down in WvW though, especially with a Sigil of Ice attached and when combined with a 1200 range blink.
Greatsword is an amazing mesmer weapon, easily my favorite.
The auto-attack does instant damage from 1200 range, and it hits nice and hard.
Berserker > Mirror Blade > Auto-Attack > Shatter can down a glassy target from 1200 range sometimes before they can even react.
[…]
About the only thing GS needs in my opinion is a bit of tweaking on mind stab. It’s not a bad ability, but the radius could be a bit larger, maybe remove two boons instead of one, or a cool down reduction. A small buff to mind stab and I think the weapon would be perfect.
That rotation is optimal while leveling, too, and that’s the one I tell everyone to use when starting out a GS mesmer. Mobs usually won’t go for you, they’ll go for your clones, letting you stay at range.
I liked Mind Stab in its earlier iteration— not targeted, more like mirror blade in that it went for your selected target and a few things around them.
Love. So much love.
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