Help on build
6/6/0/0/2
III/VI/XI
IV/II/-
III
- can be IX or XI (IX is stronger but XI is safer)
Run Sword/Pistol + Focus. Use offhand sword as necessary (useful vs Lupi as extra block, for example).
Only use Greatsword when you have to range, aka Fractals (Fire Shaman, Mai, Ice Elemental/Dredge, etc).
SIgnet of the Ether, Mantra of Concentration, Mantra of Resolve, Feedback, Time Warp.
Swap in Mantra of Distraction, Mantra of Restoration, Ether Signet as necessary. Mantra of Pain is also good for luring inquest vs Abomination.
Staff is good vs Mossman if he gets stuck under water since Greatsword won’t hit him. I personally suggest spawning 3 Spear phantasms and camp Staff with 4 Mantras charged for those sweet, sweet 1.5k Crits. If you want more dps, swap to a 2/3/0/5/4 build then swap back.
Esplen’s build is not quite optimal for the reasons I posted in the other thread. I won’t repeat them here.
Use the builds in my sig (which also appears as a sticky at the top). Sandy’s post on dulfy.net is also super great. Greatsword shouldn’t be used in most situations, because your melee damage and phantasms are significantly stronger, and your access to group might stacks and buffs will be better.
And don’t bug Mossman.
(edited by maxinion.8396)
You actually didn’t list the reasons why the other one is better, which are actually not very good in most situations.
First off, having your Phantasms hit more is great and does significantly improve your DPS, especially over long periods of time, however most fights in GW2 don’t tend to last a few minutes, and if they do your Phantasms definitely don’t (there are some cases, but you’re also supposed to retrait for niche cases when/where you can).
Secondly, if we do assume that your fights are lasting more than a few minutes, let’s say because you, and the people you’re playing with, are inexperienced, then again, the Phantasms will die because you might not know when/how to spawn them… or even which to spawn.
Thirdly, Sword phantasm is strong in single target, long fights. I will admit they tend to survive longer, but there are a lot of [long] fights where AoE occurs, potentially killing Swordsman. Additionally, they don’t benefit from bleed on crit, which adds a sizeable chunk to your damage. Devil’s advocating myself, though, the block is very useful when you’re out of endurance. To counter that point, though, if you’re inexperienced you’re most likely not going to react fast enough.
Fourth, Greatsword damage is actually not BAD, per se. I wouldn’t ever suggest it unless you absolutely have to ranged because of a difference reason. The main reason is that it benefits from being far from your target, however that’s not good. You want to stay close to your target (actually, the correct statement would be to stand close to your party) so you benefit from boon-share and are in range of their effects. Remember this is a team game and not a solo game. There may be situations where you want to spread out and be far from your target, but again, there are times when it is okay or viable to use Greatsword.
Fifth, I never said to bug Mossman.
It really depends. if you’re fighting things that take 2+ minutes to kill and you don’t lose your Phantasms when you drop them, go 6/4/0/0/4. Otherwise, 6/6/0/0/2 is better (it also deals more damage with Reflects). Actually, if you’re new, I would suggest just running 2/3/0/5/4 because it’s safer and doesn’t really rely on you as much to deal damage. Definitely not as strong, but much safer and forgiving.
I was being trite, sorry about that~
2/3/0/5/4 and 2/4/0/4/4 are certainly easier to play, yes. They don’t require Mantras, so that keeps your utilities more free to use.
6/6/0/0/2 is lower DPS than 6/4/0/0/4— you can check this using Frifox’s spreadsheet and DPS calculations, even in 30 second fights and even with phantasm ramp-up times. This is also confirmed by many others in detailed testing (DEKeyz, for example). The only thing 6 in dueling gives you is 100 precision, whereas 4 in Illusions gives a large boost in phantasm damage. The damage difference is quite substantial. The only place to use 6/6/0/0/2 is when you absolutely 100% need to maximize Feedback damage at the cost of everything else (since in that situation phantasm DPS doesn’t batter)— this is only the case at Lupi, where the 6/6/0/0/2 build (with Deceptive Evasion!) can allow you to skip phase 2+3. I suppose if you really know that your phantasms are going to be dying all the time, 6/6/0/0/2 (without Deceptive Evasion) can be good as well, but without phantasms, you shouldn’t really be bringing a mesmer to the fight anyway.
The difference between sword and pistol, as you say, is more or less marginal. I think it’s good to use sword and get in the habit of using Illusionary Riposte— this is a hugely useful skill once you get the hang of it (as a block on 9 s cooldown is seriously good). Pistol is probably easier to start with since it doesn’t require reflexes, and the 5 ability is still nice to take off defiant stacks.
So I think we mostly agree with each other actually~
With regards to Mossman: I’m not sure why you would offer this advice if your intention was not to bug him. I’ve played hundreds of fractals, with guildies, friends, and pugs, and never seen him “accidentally” bug in the water.
(edited by maxinion.8396)
Again, you’re taking my words out of context. I just said what to do IF he bugs. I did not say whether or not TO bug him. How to bug him. If he should be bugged or anything. This is kind of getting out of hand, and I really don’t care about how you decide to fight Mossman. I’ve played hundreds of Fractals and also never had him “accidentally” bug in the water. However, I can’t speak for the actions of the random players I play with. If a group wants to bug him, I’ll just sit back and follow through with them, as long as they don’t start suicide, I’ll just do what I need to do.
As for the 30 second fights, yes, but how many fights do you have where you have all 3 Phantasms up for the entirety. I know for a lot of fights I don’t have all my Phantasms up at all times and I’m replacing them constantly as my cooldowns are coming off (not replacing them as in de/respawning them, but replacing them as in the dead ones are being replaced by live ones).
Heck, the only times where I know my Phantasms will stay alive are situations like Risen Abomination (where I get Duelist Training instead of Phantasmal Haste for higher pistol survivability because of the random spawn area) or… I can’t really think of any other scenario where I have 3 Phantasms out before they respawn again. Maybe fighting Mossman normally but he’s invisible a lot so it’s hard to count that because PH wouldn’t be extraordinarily useful.
Actually, even at Lupicus you don’t really need DE. It’s nice, but it’s not 100% necessary. I’ve noticed that if I time my spawns right, I can have 3 properly staggered Wardens surrounding Lupicus (just pray that they don’t get kicked) for his barrage. Of course he’s so big that I need to use Feedback unless the Warden’s are stacked near each other, but it’s still nice to be able to pick… scratches head Well, even if I don’t time my spawns, if I haven’t had to use SotE (which I use right as I start the fight) then I can easily spawn 3 Illusions without weapon swapping.
I actually switched from Sword offhand to Pistol offhand. I prefer the bleed stacks off Pistol to replacing a precious Phantasm with a Clone because I didn’t want to get hit or roll to cancel the cast. I also like my Quip.