Guild Wars 2

After being told multiple times that a shatter specced mesmer has a much higher skill cap, I decided to fiddle around and attempt to make one for myself. I doubt they’re any good, but it’s a start.

I’d like a Shatter build that had a higher skill cap that’ll mainly be used in PvE, Fractals, and WvW. I’m unsure whether Traveler runes or Scholar runes with the spec’s for the additional movement speed or the additional damage (After all, idea of being a mesmer is to not get hit), but the weapon sets have to include Sword and Offhands Pistol and Focus, Scepter could be included as well for the clone generation if it’s a good idea as well. I enjoy being hard to hit, annoying to the other player, and things being fast. I don’t like faceroll builds where you sit there and slap 1 for half an hour standing still either, so any help would be appreciated. I know I come back here a lot asking for build help and I appreciate all the help I get, thank you! =D

Prismatic Understanding:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.1|c.1g.h17.a.5g.h1j.0.0.d19|b.1g.h17.d.5g.h1j.0.0.d19|1g.7c.1g.7c.1g.7c.1g.7c.1g.7c.1g.7c|2s.d19.2s.d19.3s.d19.2s.d19.31k.d19.2s.d19|a5.u49a.u53c.0.0|0.0|31.3d.34.3j.3o|e

Inspiration:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.1|c.1g.h17.a.5g.h1j.0.0.d19|b.1g.h17.d.5g.h1j.0.0.d19|1g.7c.1g.7c.1g.7c.1g.7c.1g.7c.1g.7c|2s.d19.2s.d19.3s.d19.2s.d19.31k.d19.2s.d19|a5.u49a.0.u581.0|0.0|31.3d.34.3j.3o|e

Illusionary Persona:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.1|c.1g.h17.a.5g.h1j.0.0.d19|b.1g.h17.d.5g.h1j.0.0.d19|1g.7c.1g.7c.1g.7c.1g.7c.1g.7c.1g.7c|2s.d19.2s.d19.3s.d19.2s.d19.31k.d19.2s.d19|a5.u49a.0.0.u37b|0.0|31.3d.34.3j.3o|e

You don’t generally want to shatter in dungeons/fractals since it’ll hit your DPS pretty hard.

I looked at the inspiration build and I’d swap out the domination trait for empowered illusions, swap deceptive evasion for phantasmal fury and swap medic’s feedback for glamour mastery.

Fire sigils are bad so use either force, slaying, night, perception or bloodlust. Off-hand energy is fine if you find you need the extra dodge (once you become familiar with an encounter you probably won’t), but otherwse just use a battle sigil or some other sort of damage modifier (e.g. on my warrior’s axe/mace I’ll have sigil of force mainhand and then sigil of justice off-hand in CM … but I’m an efficiency fanatic).

Scholar runes over traveler runes as well, unless you do more open world so as opposed to dungeons.

colesy.8490:

You don’t generally want to shatter in dungeons/fractals since it’ll hit your DPS pretty hard.

I looked at the inspiration build and I’d swap out the domination trait for empowered illusions, swap deceptive evasion for phantasmal fury and swap medic’s feedback for glamour mastery.

Fire sigils are bad so use either force, slaying, night, perception or bloodlust. Off-hand energy is fine if you find you need the extra dodge (once you become familiar with an encounter you probably won’t), but otherwse just use a battle sigil or some other sort of damage modifier (e.g. on my warrior’s axe/mace I’ll have sigil of force mainhand and then sigil of justice off-hand in CM … but I’m an efficiency fanatic).

Scholar runes over traveler runes as well, unless you do more open world so as opposed to dungeons.

I wasn’t sure as to use Force runes cause it said they didn’t affect Illusions so I left them off, also, is this a fractal focused build? To be honest I should’a been specific, it’s more of a uh… 1. PvE 2. WvW 3. Fractal, type deal. =o

Damage modifiers (unless specified) don’t affect illusions, but at the same time your own DPS is far more reliable than your illusions so it’s probably worth getting a couple damage modifiers in there.

Yes, when I say slaying, night, perception or bloodlust sigils, they’re more dungeon focused.

For open world, something like a bog standard force/accuracy would probably be fine, there’s even a skill that gives you swiftness on kill which can help you get around.

When it comes to WvW, it depends what you want to do there – a phantasm build will transfer quite badly to zerging, but is fine in roaming. It’s generally best to build separately for WvW and PvE even if it means spendng a couple seconds reraiting and equipping another set of gear.

colesy.8490:

Damage modifiers (unless specified) don’t affect illusions, but at the same time your own DPS is far more reliable than your illusions so it’s probably worth getting a couple damage modifiers in there.

Yes, when I say slaying, night, perception or bloodlust sigils, they’re more dungeon focused.

For open world, something like a bog standard force/accuracy would probably be fine, there’s even a skill that gives you swiftness on kill which can help you get around.

When it comes to WvW, it depends what you want to do there – a phantasm build will transfer quite badly to zerging, but is fine in roaming. It’s generally best to build separately for WvW and PvE even if it means spendng a couple seconds reraiting and equipping another set of gear.

I see, I see, sounds reasonable. =o

I think Force would be a better option, i’ve already got plenty of Critical Chance with these builds as well.

By the last post, i’m guessing you believe the Inspiration path is the way to go? I’ve tried it the most out of the three, I’ve not actually tried going down the illusion path as of yet, and the PU path was goooood fun, aside from being stuck to Torch.

Your IP build makes little sense in two points.
Crippling Dissipation only works if clones are killed, not shattered.
Illusionary Elasticity only affects one pistol skill and this one only applies confusion.
You might want to replace those two if you want to run shatter.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Your IP build makes little sense in two points.
Crippling Dissipation only works if clones are killed, not shattered.
Illusionary Elasticity only affects one pistol skill and this one only applies confusion.
You might want to replace those two if you want to run shatter.

Now this is why I need help from the experts, thanks for that, I wouldn’t have known! ^^

LiebnirGWAccount.5698:

By the last post, i’m guessing you believe the Inspiration path is the way to go? I’ve tried it the most out of the three, I’ve not actually tried going down the illusion path as of yet, and the PU path was goooood fun, aside from being stuck to Torch.

you aren’t stuck to torch, decoy and massinvis alone justifies PU imho.

if you trait decoy on 25% and take veill, you got 4 sources of invis, thats more than enough.

LiebnirGWAccount.5698:

colesy.8490:

You don’t generally want to shatter in dungeons/fractals since it’ll hit your DPS pretty hard.

I looked at the inspiration build and I’d swap out the domination trait for empowered illusions, swap deceptive evasion for phantasmal fury and swap medic’s feedback for glamour mastery.

Fire sigils are bad so use either force, slaying, night, perception or bloodlust. Off-hand energy is fine if you find you need the extra dodge (once you become familiar with an encounter you probably won’t), but otherwse just use a battle sigil or some other sort of damage modifier (e.g. on my warrior’s axe/mace I’ll have sigil of force mainhand and then sigil of justice off-hand in CM … but I’m an efficiency fanatic).

Scholar runes over traveler runes as well, unless you do more open world so as opposed to dungeons.

I wasn’t sure as to use Force runes cause it said they didn’t affect Illusions so I left them off, also, is this a fractal focused build? To be honest I should’a been specific, it’s more of a uh… 1. PvE 2. WvW 3. Fractal, type deal. =o

Generally, you should have different gear and a slightly different spec for each of PvE, WvW, Fractals, sPvP, tPvP. Hell I have a totally different spec for Arah which is different than my dungeon spec.

blutstein.2468:

LiebnirGWAccount.5698:

By the last post, i’m guessing you believe the Inspiration path is the way to go? I’ve tried it the most out of the three, I’ve not actually tried going down the illusion path as of yet, and the PU path was goooood fun, aside from being stuck to Torch.

you aren’t stuck to torch, decoy and massinvis alone justifies PU imho.

if you trait decoy on 25% and take veill, you got 4 sources of invis, thats more than enough.

I suppose thats true in itself. I had a giggle with myself to up the annoying factor earlier. I’m very close to Quip now, so I could go Invis, and then Pistol #5 for a single pop of daffodils to be annoying!

Xavi.6591:

LiebnirGWAccount.5698:

colesy.8490:

You don’t generally want to shatter in dungeons/fractals since it’ll hit your DPS pretty hard.

I looked at the inspiration build and I’d swap out the domination trait for empowered illusions, swap deceptive evasion for phantasmal fury and swap medic’s feedback for glamour mastery.

Fire sigils are bad so use either force, slaying, night, perception or bloodlust. Off-hand energy is fine if you find you need the extra dodge (once you become familiar with an encounter you probably won’t), but otherwse just use a battle sigil or some other sort of damage modifier (e.g. on my warrior’s axe/mace I’ll have sigil of force mainhand and then sigil of justice off-hand in CM … but I’m an efficiency fanatic).

Scholar runes over traveler runes as well, unless you do more open world so as opposed to dungeons.

I wasn’t sure as to use Force runes cause it said they didn’t affect Illusions so I left them off, also, is this a fractal focused build? To be honest I should’a been specific, it’s more of a uh… 1. PvE 2. WvW 3. Fractal, type deal. =o

Generally, you should have different gear and a slightly different spec for each of PvE, WvW, Fractals, sPvP, tPvP. Hell I have a totally different spec for Arah which is different than my dungeon spec.

I’m a very lazy person, and I came to GW2 from a game whereby you specced one way and had to follow it on for the forseeable if you wanted a good build. Got to get out of that habit and realize i’m allowed to swap and such. =)

I run 10/30/0/30/0 almost all the time in dungeons and fractals.

1 – never mix on-crit and on-swap sigils, they all share cooldowns so the swap won’t proc if the crit one just triggered. Energy is overkill for most PvE (you already have perma-vigor), although in WvW having more dodges always helps. Battle is great for damage if you’re swapping on cooldown, at least one Perception or Bloodlust is always great to build up stacks, and Force/Accuracy work if you have nothing more specific in mind.

Note, in most cases you can get away with having a single mainhand sword with a Battle in it, that way you don’t need to buy 2. Sword/X+Y is all you need for most dungeon encounters (where X and Y are two of sword/focus/pistol); I keep a GS on hand for range, AoE, and some fractal bosses, though scepter/pistol should work too.

2 – Definitely Empowered Illusions and Phantasmal Fury over what you have right now for PvE; I usually put Deceptive Evasion back in for WvW because clone generation can be more important there. The build is flexible, don’t be afraid to change traits around situationally.

3 – I’ve actually found Medic’s Feedback amazingly useful in dungeon runs, being able to Blink to a downed friend and rez them instantly inside the relative safety of a Feedback bubble has helped me save teammates countless times. For example, the Fractal 48 Grawl Imbued Shaman, whose second agony arrow would be a certain Defeated state for a downed player – just gets reflected, no problem. Of course, it’s less useful if you’re in a pro group where nobody ever downs, but that’s hardly the usual case for me..

I usually run Medic’s Feedback + Focus trait + Glamor Mastery, swapping for Shattered Conditions or Mender’s Purity situationally (or very rarely Restorative Mantras + Mantra of Pain when the group is seriously lacking survival power).

Shattered Conditions takes a little getting used to, but I find it pretty valuable when you know how it works – the trick is that the condition is only removed when the illusion shatters, not when you hit your F-key – so for everything but F4, you need to make sure you have an illusion already in melee range of your target, or be prepared to wait for the condi clear. Illusionary Leap and Mirror Blade are great for this, since they get a clone right on top of the target almost immediately. Of course, it wrecks your phant dps, so only bring it if you need frequent AoE condi removal and nobody else can do that for the party. Hopefully Mantra of Resolve will be a better option for this come Oct 15th.

EDIT: reading your original post again, I should clarify – this is a pure phantasm build here, it’s very hard to call something a Shatter build without going 30 into Illusions.
If you want to play Shatter, starting with the classic 20/20/0/0/30 is never a bad way to go – take Mental Torment and Shattered Concentration in Domination (or Rending Shatter in a PvE / non-boon-heavy env), and Illusionary Invigoration instead of the bounce trait in Illusions.

Valarauka.2719:

I run 10/30/0/30/0 almost all the time in dungeons and fractals.

1 – never mix on-crit and on-swap sigils, they all share cooldowns so the swap won’t proc if the crit one just triggered. Energy is overkill for most PvE (you already have perma-vigor), although in WvW having more dodges always helps. Battle is great for damage if you’re swapping on cooldown, at least one Perception or Bloodlust is always great to build up stacks, and Force/Accuracy work if you have nothing more specific in mind.

Note, in most cases you can get away with having a single mainhand sword with a Battle in it, that way you don’t need to buy 2. Sword/X+Y is all you need for most dungeon encounters (where X and Y are two of sword/focus/pistol); I keep a GS on hand for range, AoE, and some fractal bosses, though scepter/pistol should work too.

2 – Definitely Empowered Illusions and Phantasmal Fury over what you have right now for PvE; I usually put Deceptive Evasion back in for WvW because clone generation can be more important there. The build is flexible, don’t be afraid to change traits around situationally.

3 – I’ve actually found Medic’s Feedback amazingly useful in dungeon runs, being able to Blink to a downed friend and rez them instantly inside the relative safety of a Feedback bubble has helped me save teammates countless times. For example, the Fractal 48 Grawl Imbued Shaman, whose second agony arrow would be a certain Defeated state for a downed player – just gets reflected, no problem. Of course, it’s less useful if you’re in a pro group where nobody ever downs, but that’s hardly the usual case for me..

I usually run Medic’s Feedback + Focus trait + Glamor Mastery, swapping for Shattered Conditions or Mender’s Purity situationally (or very rarely Restorative Mantras + Mantra of Pain when the group is seriously lacking survival power).

Shattered Conditions takes a little getting used to, but I find it pretty valuable when you know how it works – the trick is that the condition is only removed when the illusion shatters, not when you hit your F-key – so for everything but F4, you need to make sure you have an illusion already in melee range of your target, or be prepared to wait for the condi clear. Illusionary Leap and Mirror Blade are great for this, since they get a clone right on top of the target almost immediately. Of course, it wrecks your phant dps, so only bring it if you need frequent AoE condi removal and nobody else can do that for the party. Hopefully Mantra of Resolve will be a better option for this come Oct 15th.

EDIT: reading your original post again, I should clarify – this is a pure phantasm build here, it’s very hard to call something a Shatter build without going 30 into Illusions.
If you want to play Shatter, starting with the classic 20/20/0/0/30 is never a bad way to go – take Mental Torment and Shattered Concentration in Domination (or Rending Shatter in a PvE / non-boon-heavy env), and Illusionary Invigoration instead of the bounce trait in Illusions.

Wow, you went into a lot of detail! Thank you for all the input!

blutstein.2468:

LiebnirGWAccount.5698:

By the last post, i’m guessing you believe the Inspiration path is the way to go? I’ve tried it the most out of the three, I’ve not actually tried going down the illusion path as of yet, and the PU path was goooood fun, aside from being stuck to Torch.

you aren’t stuck to torch, decoy and massinvis alone justifies PU imho.

if you trait decoy on 25% and take veill, you got 4 sources of invis, thats more than enough.

Update; What sort of PU build would you suggest?