Guild Wars 2

What up guys, been 2 months since I last updated a video and here is my latest guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9DE2VOVJVQ

Build link can be found in the video and here: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhIQNAW8alknpMtNqxTNcrNCrxg6sS7MSOQAlMkrB-TByHABas/wa6GQUtC9UVhJlg9o8bgnAAAXEgAAIA38mZz2MYoDdoDdoDtbezhezhezCBMaBA-e

Despite many nerfs, mesmer is still my favorite class to play and I’ll just adapt to the new meta’s to make the build/spec I play viable. Hopefully after this video, playing a shatter mesmer will be easy like 123 abc.

Too many people make the class/build itself harder than it already is, by adding triangles into it which is nonsense. Feel free to ask questions, I’ll answer as soon as possible!

Great stuff!

/15 chars

Always love watching your psychedelic charr!

Fantastic play. I will say that the single weapon I have never felt the urge to pick up for any length of time is the pistol – for some reason I just never liked using it. Now I’m tempted to give it another go.

It’s aways a pleasure to see a good shatter mesmer.
Great video, very elucidative.

This build works so well! I’ve been able to tackle almost all 2v1’s. Against warriors and guardians, I do require a bit more survivability so would you recommend switching any gear to soldiers or knights?

Neurophen.9738:

Great stuff!

/15 chars

Thank you!

Curunen.8729:

Always love watching your psychedelic charr!

Fantastic play. I will say that the single weapon I have never felt the urge to pick up for any length of time is the pistol – for some reason I just never liked using it. Now I’m tempted to give it another go.

Glad you enjoyed, its just personal preference. My game-play is offensive/aggressive so pistol is my natural calling.

lmperdigao.2567:

It’s aways a pleasure to see a good shatter mesmer.
Great video, very elucidative.

Thanks man glad you enjoyed.

DoomKnightMax.6592:

This build works so well! I’ve been able to tackle almost all 2v1’s. Against warriors and guardians, I do require a bit more survivability so would you recommend switching any gear to soldiers or knights?

Thanks! Glad to hear it.

Soldiers vs Knights

Soldiers: The power and toughness is fine, but idk I never liked vitality as a stat. It seems as you don’t get the full benefit of your 3 main stats if you use vitality. You only get a higher health pool for the initial start of the fight and that’s about it. Unless you can manage to heal 3 clones all the time to full hp.

Knights: Power, precision, toughness you get the benefits of all 3 stats. Toughness benefits you more because overtime in a fight, you’re reducing damage and it’ll be a lot more beneficial to have damage reduction instead of higher health pool.

But in all honesty my play-style was always maxed damage so soldiers or knights doesn’t really suit me. It’s just all personal preference/play-style.

Joe.4178:

Glad you enjoyed, its just personal preference. My game-play is offensive/aggressive so pistol is my natural calling.

Makes sense. Magic bullet is great, it’s just the duelist I don’t get on with.

Maybe when MH pistol ever gets released, I’d rock dual pistols and trait for them too (or pistol/focus if that ever gets fixed).

Brilliant.

Love the text, too. Very informative.

Great stuff – fun and informative to watch

And thx again for the rescue at sentry a couple days ago (Elbrin)

Nice video joe though I have a question, how come your build show 15k HP and you have around 19-20k hp in game ?

Where does the extra 5k hp comes from ?

Thanks

Curunen.8729:

Joe.4178:

Glad you enjoyed, its just personal preference. My game-play is offensive/aggressive so pistol is my natural calling.

Makes sense. Magic bullet is great, it’s just the duelist I don’t get on with.

Maybe when MH pistol ever gets released, I’d rock dual pistols and trait for them too (or pistol/focus if that ever gets fixed).

Really? I always thought the phantasmal duelist was the best since it was really reliable for damage compared to the other melee off hand phantasms. Most of the other ones like swordsman have to run up to their target, but get blown up by random aoe cleaves or warden gets blown up instantly when spawned on multiple targets. Torch phantasm is meh.

matthen.5024:

Brilliant.

Love the text, too. Very informative.

Thank you! I try to keep it the mesmer theme colors, title dark with the steps for combo’s bright so it’d be easier to see.

eldenbri.1059:

Great stuff – fun and informative to watch

And thx again for the rescue at sentry a couple days ago (Elbrin)

Thanks glad you enjoyed! I did rescue at sentry? I can’t remember o.o

Mydnyght.5026:

Nice video joe though I have a question, how come your build show 15k HP and you have around 19-20k hp in game ?

Where does the extra 5k hp comes from ?

Thanks

Applied fortitude stacks, wvw bonuses, and bloodlust stacks from the ruins when we had primetime with people getting triple ruin bonuses for us.

Also some clips I still had a celestial staff w/ celestial 3 piece (helm/chest/legs) at the time, because I didn’t have enough money to get ascended assassin (helm/chest/leg/staff/sword/pistol). Which resulted giving me 20k hp in other clips also.

Op,

Quite impressing!

Good Job!

Hey Joe,

Why do you go Assassin’s instead of full Zerk? Is it because of the Ferocity nerf?

Would you still use Assassin’s in a Phantasm build for roaming?

Burnfall.9573:

Op,

Quite impressing!

Good Job!

Thanks for the feedback!

lazycalm.5186:

Hey Joe,

Why do you go Assassin’s instead of full Zerk? Is it because of the Ferocity nerf?

Would you still use Assassin’s in a Phantasm build for roaming?

Back in my old build when I ran 3 piece celestial (helm/chest/legs) w/ celestial staff, I was at 66% crit chance. This post patch if I were to go full zerk I’d be down to 61% crit chance, its not that big of a deal but personal preference. Before the patch I would have stacks and jump from 66% to 80% then if I were to proc fury on staff auto attack, puts me up to 100% crit chance.

My goal for this post patch was to maintain my old burst damage before the post patch with the same amount of crit chance. Idk but its just my sweetspot for my crit chance. You could do that underwater trick to get up to 80% crit chance also with this build if you were to build stacks, but its more of a chore to do.

Most likely arena net will fix the underwater stacking method in like a year, so I thought I’d start early and get used to no stacks except for fortitude and leech.

But yeah, this build has been solid for me and I haven’t noticed my damage being worse or better. It’s just the same as before patch except I have might stacks instead and less survival ability from the celestial stats loss. Anyways, I always speced for maxed damage, could care less if I lost toughness, condition damage, healing power, etc, as long as I can keep the same damage.

WTF is up with your damage, even after post patch you still 1 shot people.. Pretty amazed by how well you adapted and one of the few shatter mesmers that is still playing full zerk. Don’t understand why everyone says Vash has highest burst when you clearly have been playing full zerk since the beginning.

Anyways my favorite highlights
1. Amazing phase retreat stomps, punt stomps, loved how you barely got your phase retreat blink stomp by .5 seconds
2. Maintained your chaos armor at the right times except when you missed iLeap through one part
3. Dat ele mistform stomp and how you’re able to play calm under pressure and low hp
4. Amazing editting, you put a lot of effort into this one
5. Your shatter moments are insane when you synergized with guardian ring and got double kill
6. Fast reactions when you instantly swapped to your staff to get out of blur frenzy, and decoyed when that engi tried to pull you after you got crated

Also I’ve noticed when you heal, you always use chaos armor or go in chaos storm, phase retreat heal at same time, or invuln + heal, or decoy and heal. Is there any particular reason for this?

JHN.8749:

Also I’ve noticed when you heal, you always use chaos armor or go in chaos storm, phase retreat heal at same time, or invuln + heal, or decoy and heal. Is there any particular reason for this?

Might be to ensure the heal.

@OP
Great vid, loved it and liked how you always showed how you will shatter burst before doing so.

Hmm, pretty good video. I like how you tell us step by step on how you shatter in different situations.

JHN.8749:

WTF is up with your damage, even after post patch you still 1 shot people.. Pretty amazed by how well you adapted and one of the few shatter mesmers that is still playing full zerk. Don’t understand why everyone says Vash has highest burst when you clearly have been playing full zerk since the beginning.

Anyways my favorite highlights
1. Amazing phase retreat stomps, punt stomps, loved how you barely got your phase retreat blink stomp by .5 seconds
2. Maintained your chaos armor at the right times except when you missed iLeap through one part
3. Dat ele mistform stomp and how you’re able to play calm under pressure and low hp
4. Amazing editting, you put a lot of effort into this one
5. Your shatter moments are insane when you synergized with guardian ring and got double kill
6. Fast reactions when you instantly swapped to your staff to get out of blur frenzy, and decoyed when that engi tried to pull you after you got crated

Also I’ve noticed when you heal, you always use chaos armor or go in chaos storm, phase retreat heal at same time, or invuln + heal, or decoy and heal. Is there any particular reason for this?

Thank you, I’ve yet to see any other mesmers running full zerk in wvw vs spvp with shatter. Mostly mix it up but yeah, you can’t say you’re burst unless you go max damage fully aware of losing your survival ability. I like the risk and rewards when it comes to this build

As for the healing, I always do one of the following:
1. Heal and use distortion
2. Throw chaos storm, walk into it and heal in that process
3. Mass invis and heal
4. Decoy and heal
5. Chaos armor and heal
6. Phase retreat and heal @ same time
7. Magic bullet someone then heal
8. iLeap backwards, swap, as they’re immobilized I walk the opposite direction & heal

I do most of these to make sure I get my heal off most of the time. It may be waste of these cd’s but it will save you a lot of times.

My Sweet Lily.1952:

JHN.8749:

Also I’ve noticed when you heal, you always use chaos armor or go in chaos storm, phase retreat heal at same time, or invuln + heal, or decoy and heal. Is there any particular reason for this?

Might be to ensure the heal.

@OP
Great vid, loved it and liked how you always showed how you will shatter burst before doing so.

Thank you! I try to slowmo and show the list of things I do before I make a good shatter, it may not always be perfect, but it’ll still definitely have killing power.
Also it shows other people the amount of effort it takes, to burst someone down vs. another class where they can burst someone down with 1 skill itself only.

Shu.6981:

Hmm, pretty good video. I like how you tell us step by step on how you shatter in different situations.

Thanks, theres many way to shatter, but its how you setup your shatters in different situations and being able to adapt/change in each situation, that differentiates you from other mesmers.

Hey Joe, nice to see you still running shatter! Your videos are always awesome.

Keep it up ~

Wow! That was insane! Thank you so much for slowing down parts of the video and explaining your combos, that was extremely helpful. That was one of the best videos I have seen, probably the best b/c Vash has some really good ones. Please keep the videos like that coming, it was just awesome!

That is some seriously nice gameplay!

I’m a PU condi player and I’d love to try a shatter build out. My concern was that it won’t be powerful enough anymore to burst people down due to ferocity nerf. I’ve found this build and it’s epic IMO, the only issue is I’m poor as … so I can not afford the runes and sigils. Any way around using them? I have like 45g on me, a zerker set + knights trinkets. Anything I can do with those funds to get a shatter build that will go shoulder to shoulder with this one? Thank you a lot in advance!
Have a wonderful day, happy gaming!

~Monns

WhiteRose.6934:

Hey Joe, nice to see you still running shatter! Your videos are always awesome.

Keep it up ~

Tyvm for the feedback glad you enjoyed! Shatter is the only spec I know how to play on mesmer, I’ll always find a way to make it viable despite nerf after nerf.

OJ For Prez.8254:

Wow! That was insane! Thank you so much for slowing down parts of the video and explaining your combos, that was extremely helpful. That was one of the best videos I have seen, probably the best b/c Vash has some really good ones. Please keep the videos like that coming, it was just awesome!

Thank you, I’ve learned from my past videos to slow mo the shatter parts and adding step-by-step process, makes it a lot easier to read/see what I’m doing. I’ll keep making vids for sure, but currently learning spvp so I’ll start maybe posting those also.

Jurica.1742:

That is some seriously nice gameplay!

I’m a PU condi player and I’d love to try a shatter build out. My concern was that it won’t be powerful enough anymore to burst people down due to ferocity nerf. I’ve found this build and it’s epic IMO, the only issue is I’m poor kitten I can not afford the runes and sigils. Any way around using them? I have like 45g on me, a zerker set + knights trinkets. Anything I can do with those funds to get a shatter build that will go shoulder to shoulder with this one? Thank you a lot in advance!
Have a wonderful day, happy gaming!

~Monns

Hey monns, thanks for the feedback. An alternative route you can use that I think is good is Hoelbrak runes + air sigils instead of battle for alternative. Hoelbrak you still have that might duration + -20% condition duration, and air works really well.

Currently I’ve been swapping to my build and swapping to helseth’s build for solo roaming/spvp. Helseth’s build works really well with air sigils + energy staff/gs.

Hey Joe, I’ve tried staff/GS in sPvP a few times and while it seems the shatter combos are less telegraphed (people tend to blow CDs when I try to iDualist / Magic Bullet / iLeap etc…) I find it harder to deal with thieves without s/p. are there any tricks for dealing with them as GS/Staff?

Could I get a link to that build please? Isn’t it bad that you have no way to ensure your shatters hit? Since you don’t have iLeap? Is it even a shatter build?
Any tips you could give me on how to play shatter? I’m in OMFG on Gandarra. I’d love it if we could meet in sPvP or WvW sometime and duel.
Have a wonderful rest of the day, happy gaming,
Respect!

~Monns

Neurophen.9738:

Hey Joe, I’ve tried staff/GS in sPvP a few times and while it seems the shatter combos are less telegraphed (people tend to blow CDs when I try to iDualist / Magic Bullet / iLeap etc…) I find it harder to deal with thieves without s/p. are there any tricks for dealing with them as GS/Staff?

Yeah I agree, its a lot harder to deal with thieves staff/gs. Umm heres an example of helseth using staff/gs against sword dagger evade thief before patch when it was really strong. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYz9RbHHE4w
I’m still brand new to using gs/staff, but when I’m more experienced I’ll try to make a guide. Helseth uses a lot of positioning/los in this vid, he never roams in open and plays really safe, which you should be doing. But in wvw in open fields it’ll be a bit more challenging to position/los people.

Jurica.1742:

Could I get a link to that build please? Isn’t it bad that you have no way to ensure your shatters hit? Since you don’t have iLeap? Is it even a shatter build?
Any tips you could give me on how to play shatter? I’m in OMFG on Gandarra. I’d love it if we could meet in sPvP or WvW sometime and duel.
Have a wonderful rest of the day, happy gaming,
Respect!

~Monns

Actually shattering from range isn’t that bad either if you’re playing like helseth. I’m from NA sorry lol, was glad that you enjoyed my vid.
Here’s helseth’s build for mesmer in spvp: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJAWRlknpWtlpxUNcrNipxg6yObOSGQDlMkxB-TJBFwAl2fYxlAoaZAAPBAA

I tried it. it’s a lot of fun but if you’re fighting a condie class that is halfway decent, you’re often going to die due to no condie cleanse.

Is this still effective with exotic set?

Xavi.6591:

I tried it. it’s a lot of fun but if you’re fighting a condie class that is halfway decent, you’re often going to die due to no condie cleanse.

Of course you’ll always die, sorry forgot to mention this, but I usually always duo roam with a guardian that cleanses my condi’s/heals/give my buffs. It’s more leaning towards group play. To get the most out of it, is roaming with a partner. Solo roaming is a lot more risky, and can be frustrating dying to all the smallest little things.

Afterlyfe.1096:

Is this still effective with exotic set?

Yep! You can go full zerk exotics or 3 piece assassin with assassin weapons exotic. Ascended is just convenience for extra power and toughness and +8% damage to guards and -8% damage from guards.

Is there any examples of you playing this spec in a group outnumbered so others can learn? Been having trouble trying to pull of the shatters that you do.

how you handle in wvw and pvp against the condition meta?

Awesome, thank you so much for your shatter rotations. You are probably the only reason i still go 100% zerker.

A lot of you need to realize that he roams with at least 1 guardian supporting him. You really can’t run this build without support.

Edit: this comment was in response to all the questions about condis.

JHN.8749:

Is there any examples of you playing this spec in a group outnumbered so others can learn? Been having trouble trying to pull of the shatters that you do.

This is an example of my group play kittenter spec, hope you enjoy.

messiah.1908:

how you handle in wvw and pvp against the condition meta?

I don’t, @ 3:35 in the video I have no condi removals whatsoever. I’m usually roaming with a duo partner. Solo roaming doesn’t really interest me at all, mainly 1v1 builds doesn’t justify anything. Duo roaming you have to synergize w/ your ally and communication is key, you can do the same with a 2v6 in duo, when you 1v3 solo roaming.

Pwent.2639:

Awesome, thank you so much for your shatter rotations. You are probably the only reason i still go 100% zerker.

You’re welcome, glad to see people out there still playing high risk.

jefferson.8317:

A lot of you need to realize that he roams with at least 1 guardian supporting him. You really can’t run this build without support.

Edit: this comment was in response to all the questions about condis.

You can, I did at 3:35 and still managed to do work on that group of guys. Its just more difficult to run solo, thats why I roam duo with a guard for group play.

Awesome video Joe! I recently started a Mesmer myself and am a completely noob on it so I was wondering:

How much would it cost for people like us to take mentoring classes from you?

Keep em up!

I am using gs/staff on a 4/4/0/0/6 shatter build as well. But I am using rampager gear instead, trying to make some sort of power/condition hybrid. I always have enough clones for shattering and it is both offensive during bursting phase and defensive during shatter cool down. But I do not have enough ferocity which makes it a bit of a problem. I think I have 60%+ critical chance and only 166% critical damage. That is slightly imbalanced that I am going to change later. (I cannot remember how much power I have now).

Is it going to work?

I am thinking to take Miam the Disillusioned instead of the more common iPersona. I like iPersona very much indeed: F1 and 2 can be use for offensive purpose; F3 and 4 defensive – particularly F4 when I need that brief moment of distortion to stay alive. I am hoping to give MtD a try nonetheless. Then that would make all shatter skills do more condition damage on top of confusion and F3 and 4 can double up as offensive skills as well while F1 and 2 still on cool down.

Any suggestion on that set up?

I normally run with Disenchanter as a condition cleasner for it being on a relatively short cool down; and can also be double up as a shatter folder. The annoying thing is that it needs a target but that is fine most of the time.

So, any advice or suggestion will be most welcomed.

Many thanks!

Logi.5612:

Awesome video Joe! I recently started a Mesmer myself and am a completely noob on it so I was wondering:

How much would it cost for people like us to take mentoring classes from you?

Keep em up!

I would if I had more time due to work,school/finals, summer school. Sorry xD

Oh My God.8423:

I am using gs/staff on a 4/4/0/0/6 shatter build as well. But I am using rampager gear instead, trying to make some sort of power/condition hybrid. I always have enough clones for shattering and it is both offensive during bursting phase and defensive during shatter cool down. But I do not have enough ferocity which makes it a bit of a problem. I think I have 60%+ critical chance and only 166% critical damage. That is slightly imbalanced that I am going to change later. (I cannot remember how much power I have now).

Is it going to work?

I am thinking to take Miam the Disillusioned instead of the more common iPersona. I like iPersona very much indeed: F1 and 2 can be use for offensive purpose; F3 and 4 defensive – particularly F4 when I need that brief moment of distortion to stay alive. I am hoping to give MtD a try nonetheless. Then that would make all shatter skills do more condition damage on top of confusion and F3 and 4 can double up as offensive skills as well while F1 and 2 still on cool down.

Any suggestion on that set up?

I normally run with Disenchanter as a condition cleasner for it being on a relatively short cool down; and can also be double up as a shatter folder. The annoying thing is that it needs a target but that is fine most of the time.

So, any advice or suggestion will be most welcomed.

Many thanks!

Lemme ask this, is this gonna be in 1v1 situation or group situation? Lots of things can come into play and I’ll be able to help you a lot further with your question ^^

Mostly group – big zerg or guild group. I am not very good at 1v1 but do solo roam a bit when it is quiet.

Oh My God.8423:

Mostly group – big zerg or guild group. I am not very good at 1v1 but do solo roam a bit when it is quiet.

I understand you want to be hybrid but most of the time it’s really not as effective, here’s a perfect example.

The New Meta Engineer for Spvp Tournaments, Celestial amulet, balthazar runes, air sigil, battle sigil, 6 0 0 4 4 build.

Pro’s:
1. Strong for 1v1 situations
2. Flexible for condi damage/power damage

Con’s:
1. Isn’t as strong for team fights
2. Your damage is dispersed in both directions condi/power
3. The enemies will have a support guardian that will either cleanse most of the condi’s or heal through your damage
4. Your condition damage won’t be as high since some stats were sacrificed into power
5. You won’t have the power to really cleave with your nades since condi is not as high as it should be or power is as high as it should be.

In big fights for wvw most of the time, theres light fields everywhere with combo projectiles/random condi cleanse. Condition mesmer isn’t that strong in big fights either for big groups vs big groups since its not as reliable for the clones to proc condition on random targets vs the one you wanted to target.

I’d go for power since I fully support power builds and they are much harder to play vs condi’s.

I see. But I thought condition is harder to play… since you have to monitor the stacks, reapply if needed, and survive long enough for the condition to be effective.

Oh My God.8423:

I see. But I thought condition is harder to play… since you have to monitor the stacks, reapply if needed, and survive long enough for the condition to be effective.

This is how I’ve always felt about conditions:
How is the condition stat going to be addressed?
Condition damage is already more powerful than power builds.

How to get condition damage?
- Condition Damage stat

How to get power damage? You need to combine:
- Power stat
- Precision stat
- Critical Damage % stat
That’s 1 stat verses 3. Condition damage can be coupled with defensive stats aka condition bunkers, working at maximum damage output and maximum defence 24/7.
Power builds cannot have maximum damage output coupled with maximum survival.

How is power damage applied?
- Through direct hits, either ranged or melee, you need to actively play to hurt the enemy, no hits = no damage = no kill. Much “harder” (I use that term loosely) to play than condition builds, due to 100% active game play.

How is condition damage applied?
- Through 20% active game play, and this is a big problem.
- Every condition ability is applied through range, or ranged AoE, melee condition almost does not exist in the game, range is much easier to hit than melee for obvious reasons.
- Once the debuff is applied you no longer need to actively fight the enemy, just run away and play defensive.
- Enemy dies through these passive play debuff spams, condition builds are not actively playing the game
- Ridiculously easy to reapply compared to remove

How to avoid taking direct damage (power builds)?
- Kite
- Stay out of their range
- Use CC’s
- Dodge roll through melee so they have to 180 and get back into melee range again
- Build distance through leaps/shadowsteps/charges
- Evasion/blind/block/0 damage abilities

How to avoid taking condition damage?
- Only through condition removal skills (of which there is not enough to combat the condition spam).

So how is the condition stat going to be addressed?
As you can see, avoiding direct damage is much easier than condition damage, once the condition is applied you constantly take damage, no matter of defensive play will stop condition damage, only removing the condition. Yet condition removal is almost non existent compared to condition spam.
You are already reducing the effectiveness of power builds when it is much harder to not only build for, but to play. Condition application should NOT exist on auto attacks.

Aaaah, I understand now. Thanks for the analysis!

Oh My God.8423:

Aaaah, I understand now. Thanks for the analysis!

No problem! I’ll answer anymore questions if you need me

Joe.4178:

JHN.8749:

Is there any examples of you playing this spec in a group outnumbered so others can learn? Been having trouble trying to pull of the shatters that you do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVgGyZMLK_Y

This is an example of my group play kittenter spec, hope you enjoy.

messiah.1908:

how you handle in wvw and pvp against the condition meta?

I don’t, @ 3:35 in the video I have no condi removals whatsoever. I’m usually roaming with a duo partner. Solo roaming doesn’t really interest me at all, mainly 1v1 builds doesn’t justify anything. Duo roaming you have to synergize w/ your ally and communication is key, you can do the same with a 2v6 in duo, when you 1v3 solo roaming.

Pwent.2639:

Awesome, thank you so much for your shatter rotations. You are probably the only reason i still go 100% zerker.

You’re welcome, glad to see people out there still playing high risk.

jefferson.8317:

A lot of you need to realize that he roams with at least 1 guardian supporting him. You really can’t run this build without support.

Edit: this comment was in response to all the questions about condis.

You can, I did at 3:35 and still managed to do work on that group of guys. Its just more difficult to run solo, thats why I roam duo with a guard for group play.

Tyvm for the fast responses and for the vid, was really amazing how you survive a guild group like that with only 916 toughness. On your guide I’m still curious when the other mesmer went in to blurr frenzy you @ 12:35, you used chaos armor but how come you don’t ever use your blur frenzy for defense?

Joe.4178:

How to get condition damage?
- Condition Damage stat

I think you should add Condition Duration and Precision here, making this…

Joe.4178:

How to get power damage? You need to combine:
- Power stat
- Precision stat
- Critical Damage % stat
That’s 1 stat verses 3. Condition damage can be coupled with defensive stats aka condition bunkers, working at maximum damage output and maximum defence 24/7.
Power builds cannot have maximum damage output coupled with maximum survival.

…Not true.

Joe.4178:

How to avoid taking direct damage (power builds)?
- Kite
- Stay out of their range
- Use CC’s
- Dodge roll through melee so they have to 180 and get back into melee range again
- Build distance through leaps/shadowsteps/charges
- Evasion/blind/block/0 damage abilities

I think this is wrong, u can AVOID Power AND Condition with all this things you listed.

Joe.4178:

How to avoid taking condition damage?
- Only through condition removal skills (of which there is not enough to combat the condition spam).

Wrong, once again.
Condition removal is what you need to “be safe”, “cleanse” (i dont know how to explain it, my english is a bit poor, but i think you can understand) from Condition Damage.
Exactly the same way you need Heals to “be safe”, “counter” Power Damage
BUT
Heals still counters Condition Damage!
AND
You can use Condi cleanse as soon as you get hitt by a condition -> you take 0 damage from it, and obviously the Power counterpart doesnt work the same way (ofc Power dmg is istant dmg).

Joe.4178:

So how is the condition stat going to be addressed?
As you can see, avoiding direct damage is much easier than condition damage, once the condition is applied you constantly take damage, no matter of defensive play will stop condition damage, only removing the condition. Yet condition removal is almost non existent compared to condition spam.
You are already reducing the effectiveness of power builds when it is much harder to not only build for, but to play. Condition application should NOT exist on auto attacks.

Well, i think I explained the thing about “Avoiding dmg”.
I agree about the fact that Condi spam > Condi cleanse.

This is not supposed to be a flame text, just some criticism, I hope people wont get mad.
I like the video, I played the same build for a long time but with a different Gear (more Toughness and a bit of Vitality, not fully Zerker), Traveler Runes and Sword in offhand instead of Pistol.
I really like the playstyle but, no offense, your Charr is ugly! x)

EDIT: Grammar >.<

@Over. Uh dude, are you trolling?

Over.2137:

Joe.4178:

How to get condition damage?
- Condition Damage stat

I think you should add Condition Duration and Precision here, making this…

Joe.4178:

How to get power damage? You need to combine:
- Power stat
- Precision stat
- Critical Damage % stat
That’s 1 stat verses 3. Condition damage can be coupled with defensive stats aka condition bunkers, working at maximum damage output and maximum defence 24/7.
Power builds cannot have maximum damage output coupled with maximum survival.

…Not true.

Joe.4178:

How to avoid taking direct damage (power builds)?
- Kite
- Stay out of their range
- Use CC’s
- Dodge roll through melee so they have to 180 and get back into melee range again
- Build distance through leaps/shadowsteps/charges
- Evasion/blind/block/0 damage abilities

I think this is wrong, u can AVOID Power AND Condition with all this things you listed.

Joe.4178:

How to avoid taking condition damage?
- Only through condition removal skills (of which there is not enough to combat the condition spam).

Wrong, once again.
Condition removal is what you need to “be safe”, “cleanse” (i dont know how to explain it, my english is a bit poor, but i think you can understand) from Condition Damage.
Exactly the same way you need Heals to “be safe”, “counter” Power Damage
BUT
Heals still counters Condition Damage!
AND
You can use Condi cleanse as soon as you get hitt by a condition -> you take 0 damage from it, and obviously the Power counterpart doesnt work the same way (ofc Power dmg is istant dmg).

Joe.4178:

So how is the condition stat going to be addressed?
As you can see, avoiding direct damage is much easier than condition damage, once the condition is applied you constantly take damage, no matter of defensive play will stop condition damage, only removing the condition. Yet condition removal is almost non existent compared to condition spam.
You are already reducing the effectiveness of power builds when it is much harder to not only build for, but to play. Condition application should NOT exist on auto attacks.

Well, i think I explained the thing about “Avoiding dmg”.
I agree about the fact that Condi spam > Condi cleanse.

---

This is not supposed to be a flame text, just some criticism, I hope people wont get mad.
I like the video, I played the same build for a long time but with a different Gear (more Toughness and a bit of Vitality, not fully Zerker), Traveler Runes and Sword in offhand instead of Pistol.
I really like the playstyle but, no offense, your Charr is ugly! x)

EDIT: Grammar >.<

It’s no problem, I was just trying to get to the point that this game is starting to lean towards more passive play.

Examples are that anet trying to implement
passive regen/healing on classes like the wa
signet of vampirism
healing signet for mesmers etc.

Whats the point of all the passive play? Theres no incentive for high level plays or to even press your heal button. Not even allowing people to interrupt or make nice plays to cancelling heals etc.

Example also is in the tpvp legends tournament with team apex. 2 Warriors, 1 guardian, 1 ele, 1 ranger, they’re exceptional players but when it comes to watching that, nothing is really exciting in that match. No risks are involved, high passive regening on top of 2 healers, not many people get too excited watching a boring match like that imo. A lot of people are interested in games where its neck and neck where 1 person makes a mistake/dies and makes comebacks/rotations etc.

Totally agree with you here, I just want to say that Condi is not THAT MUCH passive, it depends on the build, there are Power builds that are even more passive then Condi ones.

Outstanding guide! You’re the reason I want to pick up my mesmer again. How many pu mesmers does it take to kill an old school shatter mesmer haha.

Couple things I’m still curious about.
1. How do you feel about using blur frenzy defensively instead of offensively at @ 12:35
2. How come you phase retreat stomp in that clip with just mesmers?
3. I know you want to maximize damage, and I saw Helseths build. Are air sigils better for damage or battle sigils?

JHN.8749:

Joe.4178:

JHN.8749:

Is there any examples of you playing this spec in a group outnumbered so others can learn? Been having trouble trying to pull of the shatters that you do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVgGyZMLK_Y

This is an example of my group play kittenter spec, hope you enjoy.

messiah.1908:

how you handle in wvw and pvp against the condition meta?

I don’t, @ 3:35 in the video I have no condi removals whatsoever. I’m usually roaming with a duo partner. Solo roaming doesn’t really interest me at all, mainly 1v1 builds doesn’t justify anything. Duo roaming you have to synergize w/ your ally and communication is key, you can do the same with a 2v6 in duo, when you 1v3 solo roaming.

Pwent.2639:

Awesome, thank you so much for your shatter rotations. You are probably the only reason i still go 100% zerker.

You’re welcome, glad to see people out there still playing high risk.

jefferson.8317:

A lot of you need to realize that he roams with at least 1 guardian supporting him. You really can’t run this build without support.

Edit: this comment was in response to all the questions about condis.

You can, I did at 3:35 and still managed to do work on that group of guys. Its just more difficult to run solo, thats why I roam duo with a guard for group play.

Tyvm for the fast responses and for the vid, was really amazing how you survive a guild group like that with only 916 toughness. On your guide I’m still curious when the other mesmer went in to blurr frenzy you @ 12:35, you used chaos armor but how come you don’t ever use your blur frenzy for defense?

The mesmer in the clip was a clone death condi build, if I were to blur frenzy, I would cleave his clones and still get hit by more condi’s than I’ve already had on me currently.

imdapro.3256:

Outstanding guide! You’re the reason I want to pick up my mesmer again. How many pu mesmers does it take to kill an old school shatter mesmer haha.

Couple things I’m still curious about.
1. How do you feel about using blur frenzy defensively instead of offensively at @ 12:35
2. How come you phase retreat stomp in that clip with just mesmers?
3. I know you want to maximize damage, and I saw Helseths build. Are air sigils better for damage or battle sigils?

imdapro.3256:

Outstanding guide! You’re the reason I want to pick up my mesmer again. How many pu mesmers does it take to kill an old school shatter mesmer haha.

Couple things I’m still curious about.
1. How do you feel about using blur frenzy defensively instead of offensively at @ 12:35
2. How come you phase retreat stomp in that clip with just mesmers?
3. I know you want to maximize damage, and I saw Helseths build. Are air sigils better for damage or battle sigils?

1. The mesmer in the clip was a clone death condi build, if I were to blur frenzy, I would cleave his clones and still get hit by more condi’s than I’ve already had on me currently.
2. To avoid taking any cleave damage from their allies, Idk how to explain how many times I’ve taken massive damage or died from being a sitting duck while stomping their bodies.
3. Sigils of air are really good for spvp, but wvw in outnumbered situation its unreliable since you won’t know which air sigil will proc on which person/ambient mob.

Nice to see a shatter build having success in WvW, I’ve always been a fan of your vids.

To me I agree on some of your sentiments, shatter builds like yours have a lot of risk/reward to it and a lot of active play. Alot more exciting to watch then condi builds kiting each other in an attrition battle to see who succumbs to bleeds first.

I think Mesmers are the main culprits of how condition builds can be so passive. Nowadays 80% of mesmers you see are condition builds and I think there is a reason why this is so.

All these conditions on clone death traits, torment on blocking, auto attack inflicting conditions from range, clones themselves proccing conditions, sigils/runes, etc. These builds tend to play themselves basically. Worst part of it is the conditions are so constant and spammy and it is hard to dictate what you should dodge. Which is why I tend to play mostly a shatter mesmer myself because although it will struggle in some situations, it is still well worth the reward in others and is very satisfying to get a successful shatter off and watch people explode..