Guild Wars 2

So, I have been bouncing back and forth between Necromancer and Mesmer for a while now. The Staff Mesmer I had been experimenting with was just too slow to hit in events and lacked the AOE I wanted to tag trash mobs. So, I experimented in the mists.
I tried a Greatsword+Sceptre/Pistol Phantasm build and loved it. I could stay at range, it had the AOE potential I was looking for in the Greatsword, and the Pistol was good for those giant boss event enemies. In a team, I could have everyone take half damage with Phantasmal Defender, and also get Regen from all of my Phantasms. I had finally found it! THE build that I loved and that would make my Mesmer my main.
However, I had heard rumors about Phantasmal Berzerker, that it was broken. To experiment, I threw it on a training golem, after reading the tooltip saying it hit 4 times.
It hit once.
I waited patiently. “Perhaps it’s just that first swing that only hits once,” I said to myself. Then, it swung again, passing right through the golem.
And dealt no damage.
Not to be discouraged, I went out into the world and tried it on an enemy. It swung- and hit twice. I waited, then it hit once, and then did no damage at all.
So my PHANTASM Build, which was going to really focus on the Greatsword for the quick and AOE tagging of enemies in events, has a broken PHANTASMAL Berzerker.
I wanted to take an axe to my computer.
Realizing that would not change the situation, I have come here. Any suggestions on something that I could use instead? Maybe Warden? They don’t chase the enemy like that Berzerker does, but perhaps after they have been grouped it would work?
I could switch the off-hand to sword and then do Sword/Focus + Sceptre/Sword. That would take away my range for one weapon set, which defeats the purpose of why I was so happy with the build, but well… what else am I gonna do?

I’ve never seen my zerker fail that bad. :/ It does at least always tag a group. The damage is far from amazing, yes. But tagged they are.

Warden would definitely be able to tag them, so long as they are already grouped. If not, you could try to carefully place a temporal curtain and hope it pulls a few to the warden.

Throw zerker into a group of mobs…. He whirls and moves, on a single target this sometimes means he won’t hit the target more than once or twice before he’s whirled on thru and out of range for his final spins on that particular target. However, throw him at a group and he hits your target, and everything past your target as he spins thru. You wont necessarily get max possible damage on a single target but you will aoe everything past your target, which according to your post tagging was your goal so. Just remember the auto attack aoe needs a target in the back of the pack to hit stuff between you and it. :P

This is a bug… It has been a bug since the Feb 26th patch… The iZerker hit for much more before that they still have no earthly clue how to fix it which is infuriating to builds that absolutely love the GS. ALL HITS USED TO LAND ON YOUR TARGET BEFORE FEB 26TH… Nothing has been fixed… lets hope they get it fixed by the patch this month.

The so called “bug” has never bothered me, it’s still a strong weapon and hits quite hard, the fact that not all its hits will land on a single target is quite reasonable. When I can run a hybrid glamour build and be hitting other players 2k each spin, that’s like 8k if each spin hit a single target (doesn’t zerker do four spins during his attack pass?), seems a little rediculous to me.

I’m on Kazhiel side, it’s still a strong AoE weapon. The bug never really bothered me that much either, even if I’m a little irrited by it.

Use Sw/F and GS for AoE tagging. Throw Mirror Blade (1 clone), iBerserk (1 clone), Swap weapon, Illusionnary Leap (1 clone), Pull or iWarden (1 clone). Shatter liberaly. Repeat.

I prefer iwarden (sceptor/focus with staff). GS lacks real utility and is very single-minded. It’s a little better then it used to be due to the recent patch that allows the beam for GS to hit multiple targets, but I much prefer Staff. But I mostly play WvW, not PvE. Every ability with staff is incredibly useful and vital. Staff 2 is an incredable immobilize-breaker combined with a backwards blink combined with a clone creator. Staff phantom is very strong, and excells in PVE with multiple up (not as effective in WvW) and choas storm is so amazingly useful. Buff allies or condition foes or both plus an ethereal field. And staff 1 is great for booning up a group. Staff is generous, helping those around you. GS is selfish. Plus iWarden is amazing if traited for reduced cool down and reflection. Yes, he doesn’t move much, but if you trait into inspiration he gives regeneration to nearby allies, has retaliation, reflection, protection from projectiles and he lasts longer then iZerker. Drop iWarden in the right spot on the battlefield and it’s very effective. iZerker does his whirl and then ceases to be useful until his next attack which often doesn’t come because some ranger picks him off. Plus, temporal curtain is a cripple/speed boost, pull/push, and has moderate reflection (if traited) in the right placement. GS can certainly work, but I prefer the verisitily and generosity of staff. Plus less Mesmers run staff/scepter/focus and it’s always advantageous to attack foes that are unfamiliar with your abilities and their effects. Don’t get me wrong, some players are very good with GS and have worked into certain builds effectively. It’s just not my cup of tea.

Entropy, I agree with your assessment for the most part but the original poster just wants to tag mobs during pve events, he doesn’t need to consider survivability or any of that, the gs will do what he wants xD

Kazhiel.8194:

Entropy, I agree with your assessment for the most part but the original poster just wants to tag mobs during pve events, he doesn’t need to consider survivability or any of that, the gs will do what he wants xD

Chaos storm would be perfect for tagging mobs. And iWarden can hit multiple targets. But I see your point. If all he wants to do is tag mobs, then sure. But down the line he may want to take a more pivotal role on the field.

Chaos storm is on a long cd compared to gs skills, groups of mobs in the Orr events, for instance, spawn way faster than chaos storm cd ends. The other staff skills don’t aoe unless you count the double bounce trait but then staff auto attack is quite slow and just not a very effective tagging tool.

GS is the aggressive ranged weapon for mes when izerker is working. Without that damage + stacking criple it’s pretty bad other than the new auto attack for tagging PvE mobs.

Ironically, I was originally using Staff + Sceptre/(various). I loved it. The only problem I really had was events. I’m not talking about Orr, I have a guardian who is (sadly) permanently on farming duty out there. What would often happen is that the orbs I shoot could not get to the mobs fast enough. Or perhaps, even with power/condition damage, I could not get ENOUGH of them there fast enough to have it count as tagged.
Greatsword is IMMEDIATE. You hit that button from within 1200, you deal damage, and a goodly amount of it, too. And yes, Chaos storm is quite a long cool down for AOE. You can trait the iBerzerker down to 12 seconds cooldown compared to Chaos Storm where even traited the best you can do is 28 seconds. Quite the difference between the two.
If iBerzerker still is decent for AOE, I’ll be okay with that. I have Sceptre/Pistol for big bosses and the iDefender + Phantasm traits in a group anyway. Just a little sad that the Phantasm I like most in the build is so broken it sometimes doesn’t even hit the enemy.

Kazhiel.8194:

The so called “bug” has never bothered me, it’s still a strong weapon and hits quite hard, the fact that not all its hits will land on a single target is quite reasonable. When I can run a hybrid glamour build and be hitting other players 2k each spin, that’s like 8k if each spin hit a single target (doesn’t zerker do four spins during his attack pass?), seems a little rediculous to me.

See the thing is that its not a so called bug it is an admitted bug on the side of arena net… And the out right damage doesn’t bug me it’s that in order to catch runners in pvp situations I relied on the zerker to throwdown a cripple that actually lasted a decently long time… It used to but now it doesn’t and that is the biggest thing that bugs me because when it doesn’t function properly we have virtually no way to catch these runners… And well that just sucks.