Guild Wars 2

I run a phantasm damage build in PvP and I’ve somehow avoided the staff till now. Didn’t think it was enough DPS so I ran a Sw+P/Scepter+Sw. Lotsa damage and I do quite well. The only disadvantage is that the swordsman isn’t ranged and so tends to die a bit more.

But I decided I was being unfair to the staff and I’ve been playing with it for the past two days. I must admit the survivability excellent. I’ve gone several matches without a single death thanks to chaos armor, phase retreat and chaos storm. Never realized how tough I could become. Not that I died more than my fair share with a sword offhand, but no comparison.

It did seem as if it was taking longer for my to kill my enemies though so I recorded some videos and played them back in slow motion. The results were somewhat unclear – there’s so much confusion in a PvP match that even at 0.25% speed it wasn’t easy to figure it out. But I thought the warlock missed a little too often. Simple direction changes and of course evades cause the bolt to go haywire and in PvP everyone’s always moving. No surprise there. I got in some big hits, but it seemed the main damage was now coming from the duelist whereas previously the swordsman with the low recharge and close distance would outclass the duelist in pure damage.

I understand one can’t have everything. I get awesome survivability with the staff in exchange for the burst damage from the swordsman. The question to me is how big is the tradeoff? Any mesmers here would like to share their insights regarding swordsman vs iwarlock?

P.S: The duelist missing isn’t an issue. It fires multiple shots that move really fast so they always hit home. Plus I think the recharge is a bit faster than warlock. So that’s not going away. For me it’s between the iWarlock and the iSwordsman.

I don’t really pay attention to the Warlock very much, but I think it is reasonably comparable to other Phantasms in terms of direct damage; especially when the target gets a few conditions on them. Most of the damage loss is more likely because you’re a Power build using a Staff rather than the Warlock being weak/inaccurate. WoC’s damage is mostly condition, with laughable direct damage even with a Power build.

It miss alot in PvE too when the monsters are moving. They need to make it faster.

Hmmm, I always thought the Warlock’s bolt was tracking, like WoC and Ether Bolt. Is that not the case?

It follows the ground sometimes. Therefore it can sometimes get lost in the terrain between the iWarlock and it’s target.

Are you sure the bolt is not causing damage and it’s not just a graphic/latency glitch? I use staff a lot, too, and have not noticed this, but it’s possible I just could have missed it. I do regularly see spikes in enemy health bars from the warlocks, tho, so I’m sure it’s not missing often.

Try it on a moving monster in PvE with lots of dodging, it will miss often. The bolt is bad like the iMage slow bolt (this one is worse).

I currently prefer the iwarlock over the swordsman as the base damage per attack isn’t far behind plus the extra damage from your conditions that your other staff skills are putting on them. The swordsman is awesome but I think not worth giving up the survival and utility your staff has. Also if you are a power build some of your damage is lost on using a staff in general as it focused on conditions and boons but I think the iwarlock does benefit from power damage, it’s just that your condition damage is less in general if you are traited power. BUT, remember that Might will also increase condition damage along with power so anyway to get might will get conditions and the iwarlock to do even more damage. If you use signet of inspiration, activate it on your iwarlock and phantasms in general when you get might. Also, if you want to try it, slot all of your armor with superior runes of Lyssa, as it will at least up your condition duration along with precision for your staff, which wouldn’t hurt your iwarlock, plus when you heal you gain all boons for five seconds (might).

if you build for power>precision I don’t think it will hurt much.