Guild Wars 2

@Westibone, I think that before you go for abuild nomatter what dmg setup you chose you need to plan:

a/what do I want to do with this build

b/if its a dps build why do I chose x kind of dmg over y

c/when kitten hits the fan how do I want to survive

I understand you theorycrafting here as you use a spreadsheet but before you now what you want to do and start test it its still just… theory. Dont missunderstand me, I not criticising your build I just think that you to get optimal ressult need to plan what you want to with the build you setup

Example: A wvwvw build for groupfighting,

Her as I see it its only 2 viable styles(several builds thu), both uses a base dmg and buff source of bounce attacks and a spike of controll/dmg from confusion.

1st is the one I listed in the guide, a shatter spec who work as a confusion bomber, when enemy come you do a fast cloud of confusion that help your team by prevent enemys from attack or use abilitys, you also drop a chaos storm that help the team. If you get caught solo you have good defensive abilitys and can if the enemy deccide to stay kill him as you simply outlast him, if he feel he dont want to fight a condition stealth mesmer he say bye bye and leav you nomatter how many confusion stacks he have applied.

2nd spec is a glamour confusion support build who is invaluable for groupfighting and I aleays want atleast 1 in teamfights on my side. The spec lock a whole enemy zerg from attack without get puniched, it also defend friendly team by feedback and mass blinds. A timewarp give with rune of lyssa al boons to the team and a sigil of spread the boons give whole team a huge buff.

Again, I dont criticise your builds, but theorycrafting is ofc important but there must be a plan and the build is not complett untill tested vs a enemy team or player.

/Love Osicat

Hi Osi!

Thank you for all the time and effort you’ve put into the guide. My boyfriend and I both play mesmers and we’ve learned alot from your videos and your builds.

One quick question – is the gear in your original post guide accurate? I’m specifically looking at the hybrid damage (20/20 —- 30). I know said 4/6 bz, 1/6 knight and 1/6 val for the hybrid, but which pieces of gear are which? On the hybrid, since you want more bz stats, would you run the knight and valkyrie pieces on say, the boots and gloves rather than the chest and legs so that the chest and legs can be bz pieces? Also, are your weapons accurate? You say you use all bz, but I thought you said in another post you use a mix of bz/valkyrie weapons for the hybrid spec. Thanks!

osi what do you think about single target mind wreck ?
if they nerf like this still our class will be fun ? or playable ?

@ Osci,

If you would, please help me out with some stats plz, bud.

Here is a quick breakdown of my gear.

6 runes of Air

Zerkers items:
Helm
Shoulder
Gloves
Pants

Knights: Boots

Valkyrie: chest

Jewelry: All jewelry slots filled with Ruby
Ancient Karka shell of zerker
Ruby earring
Ruby ring
Nightmare Coil Ring (P/V/T)
Triforged Pendant

Back item: Quiver of Swift Flight (Power/Prec/Crit Dmg)

Swords: Zerkers MH and OH
Staff: Zerkers
GS: Zerker
Pistol: Knights

My stats unbuffed with dual swords are:

Power: 2037
Pre: 1714
Tou: 1063
Vit: 1101

Crit %: 42
Crit Dmg: 88
Armor: 1983
Health: 16932

With staff:

Crit: 40
Crit dmg: 87

So long story short, how in the world are you getting to 65, lol? I am trying to get my crit as high as possible without switching the last two pieces of gear I wear to zerkers as well. If I swapped the boots, chest and PVT ring, then that would help but is the defensive stats lost worth the trade off?

Also, I have enough divinity and/or eagle runes to replace the air runes which again would boost my stats, but is that worth the trade off? If so, divinity or eagles?

I am just trying my hardest to stay someone survivable while getting my crit up. I am about 25% off of your crit , granted I can eat food and oil to get closer to 50, but I am still way off.

Any suggestions?

Would you go full zerker pieces, swap air for divinity, etc?

Thanks!

Oh, and sorry for the massive text bomb. Seemed so much shorter when I was typing it.

Sooo.. with these builds.. If you get bleeds/burns/poison thrown on you, you’re just supposed to take it? Run away and wait for heal to be up? Seems incredibly weak.

@Season, In general you want the chest and pants/helm for other stats than BZ, this as they contain more stats but a BZ is 4% crit dmg on chest aswell as say glowes. Wep is accurate.

@Anuxdei, tbh I do not think MV is one of the abilitys the dev,s talk about. You never know but I wait with plan for nerfs untill I see em on paper. Overall if mv not get nerfed but general aoe(fields with durration) life would be easier for thiefs and us as we immune spike dmg but often take steady ongoing dmg in big fights.

@Pimsley, Food and oil is used on my battle stats as I always use it, also add precision stacking sigil to staff and you gain atelast 100 preci (10 stacks) in any fight, in teamfights when you not wery often die and kill I often reach 25 stacks and keep it for long time., a swap to knight chest would drop your hp but gain more precision and toughtness, bump in some valk on another slot if you run low, say a jewel.

@Darx, I understand your doubt, I can thu for sure after hundreads and hundreds of hour testing say that the spec’s is not week.

The 1st spec is “weekest” vs conditions, this is why it demand more vitality gear, It also is based most around Juking, in and out.

2nd spec (hybrid) carry sigil of generosity who accualy lift some preassure, also it carry 2 (!) target drops, the whole Idea with the spec is to not get massive dmg stacked on you. If you do it by target drop, or immune (yes if you immune a attack before it land you immune the conditions aswell, but you cant immmune conditions already applyed).

3rd spec Do have both sigil of generosity, more passive defense and null field, here I cant say how you see any weakness vs conditions?

4th again is based around several target drops.

Thing is that yes, if you as a mesmer go and stand in the combat range of any class you most often die. If you stand toe to toe with a necro and soaking it you die. When you need to do is forget your passive defenses, they are not enought mate. What you do is juke in, deleiver a burst, drop clones and phantasms for dmg preassure and juke out. here you say (wait for heal up) but thats is a inaccuarae description. You instead keep prassue up, a few sec later you have cd,s and juke in and deliver dmg. this keep a steady preassure on enemy and you simply avoid get hit.

I also recomend se this movies for combat tactics with shatter mesmer, it might make it easier for you do understand the mecanics I talk about:

/Cheers Osicat

@Pimsley more then his crit chance need to be understood how he gets the 100%+ (if i well remember^^) crit dmg, since you got 88 whit almost same hp and even less toughness

Ty alot ot the SF “Time” mesmer I got to duel for 8 mins, superb skills. Good fight.

/Osicat

** Uppdate **

Latets Shatter cat guide is ready !

Its a d/d 0-10-0-30-30 how to guide aswell as a basic cd managment guide. It show some misstakes I do when I spend my cd,s to fast instead of pull back aswell.

I sure its helpfull.

/Osicat

Enjoy

Uppdate

Started work on the gear guide. 1st part done.

@Osicat, Sigil of Generosity seems good but, like you, I only use my sword to juke in for blurred frenzy. Does the sigil remove conditions on phantasm and clone crits too? OR just crits with the sword?

@Darx, the abilitys so far I can say for sure after my observations is that the nr 1 attack, block, daze throw, blurred, and leap (99% sure on last, might been me hit a nr1 after leap moved me) transfere a condition. Not fully sure but shatters carry the 5% dmg bonus of force, might also proc sigils. I will test the shatter part and come back to you .

As its 60% chance to transfer a condition and my crit chhance usualy in battle is 60% + I tend to proc on regular basis.

Clones and Phantasms do not proc sigils exept the stacking ones, they do thu carry crit chance and +% dmg from our stats.

Also the sigil renew the full duration, look at the poison in the theif fight, when it gets transfered it get a full long duration.

/Osicat

PS New movie up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjUtDw8e8kI

Ok, thanks – a few more questions then, if you don’t mind. First, can you explain how you’ve modified the targeting system to work for you? It seems like the default tab targeting isn’t working very well as inevitably it jumps off my target onto an ally or something else (especially when using staff.)
Also, what do you think about using a torch as opposed to OH sword? I find that I need to stealth more than I can to “escape” after bursting and applying pressure –or is there another way to escape undetected? It seems when I blink out they still find me, even if I have my clones out. But from your videos, it seems you’re able to disguise yourself pretty well – how do you do that?
Third, I’ve been testing the air runes for the lightning strike proc – but I think I’m doing something wrong. When being hit by the spvp class dummies, my lightning strike is hitting for between 600 to 2k with a BZ neck/jewel, a far cry from the 6k-10k you’re seeing. How are you getting such high hits?
Also based on that question, have you ever considered replacing air runes with divinity runes? Higher crit chance and overall better stats (Basically Im wondering if the random ls proc is worth the stat decrease, for you.)
Last thing: I know now you’re supposed to “save” your burst. Does that mean you don’t shatter till you’ve gotten a target to low hp? But then how would you even get them down without shatters, which are huge parts of your dps? And which shatter skills do you prioritize, and for what purposes?
Thanks, sorry I have a lot of questions T.T

Also, looking at BZ exotic gear, the gloves only have 2% while the chest has 5% crit. What’s going on here? I thought you said it was supposed to be 4% flat each piece.

@season, first, the gear, 4%flat is wrong, sorry, I used my own weard spread sheet and messed in the air runes 2% crit dmg. Still the gain of normal stats is higher compared to the % crit dmg you gain. Chest and helmet is better stats /%crit dmg. Just look at gloves and helmet, samer %crit dmg on berserker gear but more stats. 34p24prec2%crit dmg glowes, 45p32prec2%crit dmg. A knight helmet and berserker glowes give a better overall gain than a berserker helmet and a knight glowe cause of his.

Save your burst mean dont spend al at once ::) Mv have short cd and can be used, but daze have long cd and should be used if you a going for a kill, or planning to resett your shatter cd,s.

For deliver preassure and get your enemys down to say70~% you use sword, staff clones, phantasms etc. See https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4xXw97Wz7R8
great example of preassure untill enemy down, first 2 fight is full bursts. dee the difference.

Rune of air do more dmg in wvwvw than in the myst. you cant get so high crit dmg in the myst as in your wvwvw gear. Also air runes are used for the mobility as mouch as the dmg, why they better than divinity for the spec,s.

Torch, feel free to test, you will lack alot of dmg thu, but gain some defence. I dont like the torch in any way exept a target drop thu.

/Osicat

PS New movie up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjUtDw8e8kI

Oh one more thing, while testing on golems, I have a feeling you might been having a sigil of air on a weap aswell? Note sigil of air on wep have same animation, and the combat log say same (lightningstrike) but the rune prock when you get hit, sigil is a prock when you crit. Also, sigil hit for maby a third of the dmg a rune hit for.

Rune is nerfed sens a few weeks back, but it still crit for 5-6k+ regulary.

This is more than a third of a gs thiefs health and it cant be avoided reflected or dodged. Its just fantastic how good passive defense it offers.

/Osicat

PS New movie up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjUtDw8e8kI

Oh ok, thanks! ^^ that clears alot up. I discovered I was using sigil of air actually, so no wonder -_- At what rate should crit damage % be preferred over say, toughness? Or is there a website I can use? I’ll have to compare them and do my own min/maxing then.

May want to edit your gear build guide post on the first page then, since it says that you get the same crit damage from gloves as from a main piece.

@Season, this is why I often consider this guide as a ressult of the mesmer community rather than my personal work. I do misstakes and sometimes misses something. Ty for point out the description of crit bonus. Fack remain thu, the overall bonus in rating from stats is bigger if you use the “big” gearparts for pure stats bonuses. Example chest for knight, and uses glowes etc for crit%. Also jewelery for %crit dmg.

Corrected my gear guide description.

For toughtness I feel that use the % crit dmg and toughtness ring from fractal with the knight gear etc give enought. 1100~ This is for the hybrid spec. Shatter cat original want a little more passive defense.

Next vid might be a guide for shatter cat heavy build. Having good ressult with the build aswell.

/Osicat

PS New movie up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjUtDw8e8kI

I know, and thank you, thank you so much for taking the time to write all this up. Last question, I promisse: I find that right now I’m being downed alot (at least once every 5 or so kills, in wvw.) So I’m wondering if the precision stacking sigil in the stack would be better replaced by something that doesn’t require constant uptime, such as the flame aoe? At least for people who aren’t super pro yet and never die. :P

Nice work osicat with this guide, I remember when I first saw winterfell’s shatter build and started trying it out, then I saw you making some awesome vids and different shatter builds. (All really well though out).

My hats off to you for optimizing your build’s with specific runes/sigils/gear and taking the time to post them here while helping the community with in depth answers to specific questions. Your posts have been really helpful and a source of motivation to try different things on my mesmer so thx man.

Over the weekend I switched from a 20/30/0/0/20 build to a 20/20/0/0/30 build to pick up the Illusionary Persona trait. This build matches the Hybrid in this guide for trait distribution and utility skills. Although I use the GS power trait instead of the +15% illusion dmg.

I’ve played mostly GS so it took a while to get use to the closeness of the 1H sword. I have to admit I really like it. Having an on-demand F3 and F4 for emergency situations is very nice.

I still prefer the range of the GS, but switching into 1H sword for up-close battle is very satisfying. I found myself handling 5 mobs in PvE without a problem. Mirror images really shines to dump out extra shatters.

@Season, Its not unviable to use another sigil and in no way do ppl have to folow my guides builds exact to preform well. I use the setup I found work for me best after testing etc.

I will thu explain why I find preci stacking on staff so strong. First of all you need to understand the diferent modes in a fight, steady dmg defensive mode. This is whene I move away tfom the enemy, deal a steady flow of dmg and slovly wear a enemy down. in this I use staff. Staf deal dmg but also keep me alive and mobile. A enemy who have hes hp ticking donw in a sertan pace feel secure.

He feel “ok I take dmg but if I lose this hp every sec I can last untill my next heal/defensive cd” and he let the hp fall a bit, trying to kill the target. Then al sudden I switch mode, go to s/s or s/p, juke in offensive and deal a burst of dmg. If enemy who felt secure with 60% hp might go down, if he dont he instead in many cases panic a little, do a few misstakes and hes so secure feeling turns into unsecure.

Stacking sigils is the only sigils who you can keep on your staff and still get benefits when you switch away from it. The offensive mode will use the stakcs and it still carry its value to next setup. So when you attack you attack with the power of 3 sigils.

You dont need to get 25 stacks for preci to be worth it. Even 8-10 stakcs is a major buff for your offensive mode and can be grinded in 30 sec on cayotes outside spawn. Pull a pack of 5-6 cayotes on you, get some shatters up and a chaost storm and in 30 sec you have 10+ stacks

@Gmaster, Cheers mate, post like yours is the reason I feel its worth do al this

@Juno, yes mirror is a fantastic ability, alot of enemys get supriced it also is a stunbraker, sunned target suddenly is unstunned, pop 2 clones and dodge, in dodge a 4 clone MV hit.

/Osicat

@Osicat,

Where do you go to find good 1 v 1, 1 v 2s?

Oh I see what you’re doing, you’re messing with their head. That makes alot of sense :P

Though, I did go out to WvW today and tried some of your techniques and using most of your gear suggestions. Oddly, I’m still only seeing 2k air rune (not sigil) procs. So not sure what’s happening there T.T

Overall though it’s becoming much more fun. Playing as a shatter mesmer is so fast paced!

*** Uppdated ****

Completed the gear and opened the tips and tricks section.

Guide is now completed but ofc it’s a ongoing process and will keep do q/a and work on improvements

Ty al for help and support while working on this.

Next part is a videoguide for “Shatter Cat Heavy” spec

/Osicat

Uppdate

Recreated the Build Links with working click URL,s. They should al work on the foum now by click.

/Osicat

I see this guide got sticked now, also my damage log (combat) think it say wrong… cause I know I do more than 10k shatter, but it says 1.8k*4 MW shatter… just a minor issue, also changed sigil of force to sigil of air, not that much of a difference, you get 1k lightning hit so just some more damage add

Osicat.4139:

2nd spec is a glamour confusion support build who is invaluable for groupfighting and I aleays want atleast 1 in teamfights on my side. The spec lock a whole enemy zerg from attack without get puniched, it also defend friendly team by feedback and mass blinds. A timewarp give with rune of lyssa al boons to the team and a sigil of spread the boons give whole team a huge buff.

I’m interested in learning more about this. I’m assuming you use 20/0/0/20/30 yes? Every time I try to play that spec I feel like I’m having issues generating clones when mirror image is down and it bugs me.

Am I focusing too much on shattering or is there something I’m missing? Any other tips appreciated of course.

@UnknowFreak, Yeah happy it got stickyed, dont ean I will stop work on keep it uppdated But feel good, put alot of effore on make it more user friendly.

@Attic, Accualy I use 20-20-0-0-30 with clone on dodge, blind on glamour confusion on glamour. This keep me alive aswell as give strong support to the raid. I know a optimal support glamour build would be longer glamours but I feel the initial crach when the zerg run into that doorway is where al matters, first 5 seconds. Also a good clone generation and illusionary pers give option to confusion bomb with cry shatters on smaller groups, its hard for them to hit you when feedbacks etc is up and you can survive good with shatter nr 4.

/Osicat

Ah ok. So you rely on shatter, people blinding running through your glamour fields and presumably scepter 3 for confusion stacks and just take the blind on glamour for extra utility.

So it’s very much like your confusion shatter build with some traits swapped around then.

Hello Osicat,

You thread is very informative. Thank you for sharing your builds!

But I am confused about the armor but not the accessories. Which part is BK, V, or K? Is K always dody ,V are boots, and the rest BK?

Thanks!

@Attic, yes kinda simmilar and the gear is about the same, many condition dmg

@Qiko, Added at section 4 a gear explantion set where I explain why some slots is better for Knight etc, If anything unclear after read it just ask and I try explain mate.

/Osicat

oh hai. i heard you were the best mesmer ever and i wanted to know if i could come to your house again and tickle blanca.

also, stop playin this and come back to pew in wow wit me and talli!

Gz on the sticky Osicat!

It’s about time this got stickied, really.

im glad this got stickied cuz this build or some modifyed versions of it just work so well together in both pvp and pve.

Congrats on the stickyness!!!

Cheers all, I am happy aswell. Its good for new mesmers to find a serie of working builds, but also its a plattfrom for more experienced players to experement and find new ways to play the shatter mesmer. The builds and guides is under constant develop and it will be interesting to see where the wvwvw and pve evulution will take us in the comming year.

Feel this build/guide is a ressult of the Mesmer community’s dedication to a class we love to play. Few other professions have so class loyal players as the mesmer and I get suggestions, ideas etc sent to me on daily basis. Trying to tets most of it whne I got time, in wvwvw.

/Osicat

Seeing this stickied just confirms my suspicions on the direction ANet wants to take mesmers. And I don’t like it.

Finaly, congratulations Osicat, you deserve it

Gratz on the sticky Osicat!
I see you added a ‘tank’ build like I’ve had for a while but I’m interested in your gear choices as I’m building my exotic set. I found your stat ranges to be helpful when I was playing with the original shatter cat build, and later you specified each piece like you have with the jewelry, but the armor is vague. Would you add that back in?

Like, instead of 4/6 berz, have head/shoulder/gloves/boots berz or just give the total stats 16k hp/1400tough/50%crit/80%crit dmg, etc

I have a few questions for you osicat.

What video editing software do you use for your videos, and what is your export format? I’ve been unable to successfully upload .avi videos to youtube, as they keep failing when it tries to process them. I eventually managed to get an mpeg4 video to upload properly, but despite exporting at 1080p resolution, youtube only displays it at 720.

Great job, Osicat! My only only tiny complaint is that since you use music from “UMG” in your videos, they cannot be played on my ipad.

Very nice and interest of the 3.4 confusion cat such as what I using

Few question discuss with you

1, I never see a rabid ear ring and necklace, does they really have?

2, Do you think the condition duration important since you gave up the dom traits

3, sometimes I will switch the torch to pistol for bleeding since condition build, what do you think?

4, If replace the unread rune to centaur for the swiftness boon, big different to the build?

Really nice vedio and make me re-enjoy to my Mesmer
Thanks

Izzac
NYS from SOR

@Wppt, I added in the gear section a guide inside the gude who show what slots best used for big stats ( stst gear) and what best used for % crit dmg. The section also explain why so you understand why I do like I do and not only “make up” a favorite and claim its the best.

@Pyroatheist, I use adobe Elements for rendering and deiting my movie. Can save is several formats one is 1080 : 30.

@Kripes, yes its unfortunate as the music I pick of the vids is part of the “style” I use. Same as I tyr keep the “guide” part of the video around 6 minutes (longer and ppl get bored).

@All, Shatter cat Heavy guide vid is 60% done, need some free time to complete, work alot atm thu so will take some days.

/Osicat

Edit: @Izzac, your post came just after I saved my q/a for the morning, I try get time to aswer you from work, need to run.

Ramiel.4931:

Seeing this stickied just confirms my suspicions on the direction ANet wants to take mesmers. And I don’t like it.

I wouldn’t read too much into it. It’s an excellent guide, that’s why it’s stickied. If you create a similarly excellent guide for another build it will likely be stickied as well.

Hey Osi! Love the videos and such, I was just wondering what you think about Arcane Thievery in your builds? I’ve been replacing the Mirror Images with this and it really helps against classes that just stack tons of buffs on themselves. <3 Looking forward to the response.

I have hard thinking swapping MirrorImg, with ArcaneThievery but I guess it work, I always have MirrorImg and Blink, my third utility depends on the situation, defense I often use portal to burst down enemy siege (catas& sometimes trebs), when I run with allies I swap this one to Decoy, of keep the portal, also Feedback is used when attacking enemy towers/keeps, also in defense if I see alot of invaders attack on the gate, I also change my elite to MassInvis or Timewarp. Or sometimes just Decoy for one extra clone sometimes, guess it’s not wrong testing ArcaneThievery.

Also about weapons nowadays I also have a focus so I can gain swiftness when running supply runs, I still run the staff and S/S, just swapping fast to focus and then back

@Izzak, here come my answer, crazy da at work, alot of sick ppl but its calmer now.

1, New recepies for rabid exotics in a patch a while ago: http://www.gw2db.com/items/72062-colossus-fang
http://www.gw2db.com/items/72128-tortured-root

2, cond duration is best obtained thru food.

3, both viable, overall torch is a rather weak wep but I use if in my condi build for a extra target drop and defense.

4, Tbh centaur runes is not a favorite for me in any build, especialy in a condition build as you even if you catch up with ppl (witch you cant in most cases anyway) you dont have dorect burst enought to kill them. Better then to swap torch for a focus if you realy want speed buff, your dmg will come from staff and shatters in this build anyway and you have enought passive defense to use a focus. Personaly I run in group mostly with condition spec when i use the spec, this sort my speed problems.

@blainerz, yes I just find that mirror immage have more usages, especialy in hybrid spec and original build it serv a on demnd survival, burst or daze. It can be dropped when running from somone to daze em, it can be used as a stunnbraker or a insta blink+4 source shatter on a fleeing target. Hit by a stun its superb stunbraker + 3 sec immunity.

For shatter cat heavy it would be a option but think null field is better for the build as it give extra chaos armour.

Dont take me wrong, by al means test and experement, see my builds as guidelines and suggestions but alter and mixture with em to find a personal style who work for you. I post the way I like to do things and whats work for me. I do thu test everything over and over again to find a good combo for a build etc.

@Umknown, spot on, on ,my guild runs I change utilitys after situation. Attacking a tower? Hello feedback and nullfield. Fight a smal group defending a camp? Mirror immage and portal here we come.

/off to work again, Osicat

Osi, is there a recipe for a rabid staff or is it a dungeon only item?