Guild Wars 2

When I first started as a Mesmer, I mostly did shatter builds. The problem was that the non-shatter builds I tried were much more fun. Now, I have a new problem. I never hit the shatter keys anymore. With other builds Phantasms usually come into play somehow and you can even have multiple of the same Phantasm. Do you really want to shatter a phantom?

If you look at the Engineer, they have tool belt abilities in the same slots as our shatters. The difference is that the only time a tool belt skill can’t be used is when the Engineer has turrets out otherwise with any other utility they can just fire off the tool belt anytime they want and benefit.

I just wish I had more incentive to use the other half of our class mechanic because otherwise we look like more of a pet class.

I use them a bit, distortion for a free unstoppable stomp in PvP. I occasionally use mind wrack in PvE when I’m 100% sure it will kill the mob.

I forget to mention that but yeah, I sometimes use them at the end of a fight. But that is just at the end.

I use shatters all the time. In coordination with Mirror Image I don’t have to worry about not having illusions out to shatter and distract.

I hardly ever use shatter. I just assume use my clones for a diversion from me.

I don’t shatter until the enemy they were spawned on will die from the burst, or in special cases like when I need distortion or daze to interrupt something.

Shatter should be used to finish a enemy every time it’s faster than waiting for the next phantasm attack.

I believe that if mesmers had the choice to shatter their clones and keep their phantasms alive, it’d make shattering skills much more useful. I know that it’d be hard to make a chang like this, and that once you get your 3 phantasms rolling, shattering would lose much of its potential again, but it’d be really useful in many builds.

In PvE I’d Shatter for a finisher. In PvP I generally only Shatter for Distortion, and usually only to secure a stomp.

i shatter all the time in pve, but in wvw the only shatter i use is distortion.

I haven’t just stopped shattering, i’ve stopped playing a mesmer. I’m really disappointed with this class, it’s a mess!

Rarely, if ever. Minion bombing seems wrong as primary shatter mechanic. Mesmer needs a bit of work. Fun profession otherwise.

I did fine with a confusion/shatter build. pump em out, shatter them with cry of frustration, then stack confusion any other way you can and watch mobs kill themselves. I switched to a phantasm dps/support build recently, so no more shattering but not because it doesnt work…

I use it a fair bit in PvE, especially big event with lots of enemies to hit that are grouped up.

I am currently using greatsword + staff and generally open with Mirror Blade + Phantasmal Beserker. If I had Decoy to that (until I open the create clone when dodging major trait) I have 3 illusions up. Use Mind Wrack followed quickly by Mirror Images and Cry of Frustration and that’s a lot of aoe damage.

I’ve tried three different builds in PvE; the first used clones and phantasms as control, either soaking damage with them or using on-death mechanics to weaken and cripple the enemy, the second was a phantasm build and the third was a shatter build. With the first two builds shattering had a cost that outweighed the benefit, only in the shatter build was it worthwhile to shatter mid-fight.

Are other professions like this? I’ve heard Steal is only good if Thieves build to add a bunch of effects to it. I’m not sure about the other professions.

I shatter at every available opportunity. Stunning opponents trying to get away, going invulnerable when trying to stomp someone, damage spiking someone who is close to escaping at a sliver. Shatters are excellent utility.

I would Shatter but…

Between the lag time when I push the button and the time it takes for my illusions to walk over to the target and explode (sometimes as long as 3 seconds, and frequently even longer on a mobile target) coupled with the fact that it isn’t uncommon for me to hit Shatter, only to see my illusions die en-route to the target as they walk through an AoE (and my Shatter still goes on cooldown even though nothing happened)…

And on top of all that, the damage is fairly sub-par and is actually a DPS loss in many cases…

So yeah, I tend just not to bother with Shattering too often. It’s a cool idea, but right now the implementation just doesn’t impress me at all.

i hit those keys a few times and all it really seemed to do was make my phantasms go away with no other discernible effect. i learned my lesson about hitting those keys!

It’s play like this that makes people think Mesmers are a bad class.

The worst part is people are spending time complaining about good abilities, and not even mentioning bad abilities (Mantras, iMage, etc.)

If I want to be at the top of my game, then I can try to time shatters just after the phantasms attack and balance them with the skills recharging. Or I could just let them stay and get almost the same damage.

It bothers me so much that while you can of course play super-macro and try to twist in the shatters with everything else, the way it is set up with phantasms and their huge damage you are encouraged not to. There are of course plenty of threads on this already though.

I don’t know why they don’t just separate clones and phantasms and just have shatters not affect the phantasms. I also think you should only be allowed one of each phantasm type out.

Never shattered in the first place, except to end the fight.

In PvE I use F1 often when the mob is about to die, might as well, but also when I need AOE, which Mesmers are sadly lacking. In events where I gotta quickly do as much damage to as many enemies just to get loot, I summon a lot of illusions and use Mind Shatter. Pretty much the only direct damage AOE Mesmers have.

In PvP I use F3 for interrupts (such as someone finishing my ally) and F4 rarely when I wanna get away and they aren’t really distracted by my illusions anyway.

I never use F2.

I just started playing but honestly, it just doesn’t seem worth it. Especially if you mainly use the Phantasmal Warlock and Phantasmal Duelist. By the time they run over, get to their enemy, and then explode the enemy’s probably dead anyway. And that’s assuming the phantasm didn’t randomly die on his way to there. Clones aren’t even worth mentioning since they hardly ever last long enough to be at the end of a fight. I would rather just get the talent in the Domination + Chaos trees that cause conditions when your Clones die for a much more reliable damage source and less micro managing.

I mostly shatter before I start replacing any of my clones or phantasms, or when they’re about to die. This is mostly for the GS zerker with the clone since I notice the zerker likes to take an opening volley from the enemy first, so I shatter with that pair first, then it’s back to keeping a bunch of phantasms up as much as possible.

I’ve started using the daze shatter when I can get 3up on bosses, mostly to clear up stacks of defiant as well.

For F1 & F2, I tend to shatter when my Phantasm and Clone skills are off CD and my Energy is full again. The only time I don’t is when I can get a trio of I.Duelists up on a boss in a place where they don’t get caught by AoEs.

For F3, I only use against bosses when their CC Immunity Stack is up. Its a great and efficient way to tear through that to put up Moa or the Bullet’s Stun.

For F4, its my Panic-button. I’m doing something and suddenly an AoE circle appears at my feet or player/boss is charging something? Use it for 4 seconds invulnerability, as my Clones/Phantasms are likely going to die by the same effect anyways and may as well let them get one last laugh with a Confusion stack dmging the enemy for a skill thats going to miss me.

In WvW I typically will dodge, use mirror blade for 2 illusions and then send a berserker into a zerg, typically the berserker gets one attack off before it’s dead, I then use F2 to confuse a ton of people, at which point the berserker’s back up :P, next rotation I use F1 shatter (which also confuses a bit with my build) and so on. Really effective tactic against zergs from what I’ve seen so far.

I play dungeons quite often, this I shatter all the time.

Shatter works exactly as intended – theres nothing wrong with it.

I run a shatter/confusion build – i take the 3 traits in the the Illusions tree – Dazzling glamours which blinds foes at the target location (feedback bubble) – Blinding Befuddlement which causes confusion to blinded targets and Master of Misdirection which keeps confusion up for 33% longer.

starting with Mirror images + phase retreat for a quick 3 clones – Cry of Frustration them into your foes, drop a feedback bubble on top of the confused and blinded targets + Chaos Storm for all its goodness + pop your iWarlock which does more damage per condition appied. At this point since you have about 20 conditions applied your iWarlock hits for about 3500 while your foes with that many conditions on them are hitting themselves for 1800+.

Single target you should be able to kill a lvl 80 mob in about 4-5 seconds or take a group down to 40-50% in the same time.

So yes .. i heavily rely on shatters, every moment i can stack confusion i do. Your iWarlock while doing big damage only really does single target and has a 5 second cast. Your Shatter on the other had causes all your foes to hit themselves for 3x that much with the correct conditions applied.