Guild Wars 2

I’ve been using Greatsword in both WvW and PvP for about as long as I’ve had my Mesmer. Lately I have found that every time I use it, I hate it just a little bit more. I’m getting a little tired of it’s crap.

Pros:
-It can do some really solid dps
-Cone knockback = good
-Cripple on pZerker
-decent sustain dps at 1200 range

Cons:
-pZerker is ridiculously easy to dodge.
-Mirror Blade is very slow and does underwhelming damage
-Laser shows people exactly where you are
-As soon as people get close to you, your sustain drops drastically. Sure, you can use #2,#3, maybe #4 if it’s off cooldown, but then you’re just back to a lame auto attack.
-95% Offensive (5% is if you use iWave defensively), though this may not be a con to some people.

I don’t have anything bad to say about Mind Stab or the Wave. Both decent skills by themselves.

I know a lot of people love GS, and I do think that it’s a fun weapon. It just gets so frustrating. I think I’ll be using only staff from now on as my ranged weapon.

I actually find staff absolutely invaluable and always choose it over Greatsword, if only for the simple fact that coupled with Sigil of Hydromancy and/or the Crippling Dissipation trait, it makes me slippery as anything, and doubles as another blink if I’m travelling from point to point if I do a quick backwards turn.

The procs of Aegis and Retaliation on both my phantasms and clones with Chaos is also fantastic, and with a high crit power rating, it can manage to do some pretty substantial damage, as well as guaranteeing interrupts on enemy resurrections, oh boy.

Really could go on about staff for days

The survivability tradeoff is far too great.

kylwilson.9137:

I actually find staff absolutely invaluable and always choose it over Greatsword, if only for the simple fact that coupled with Sigil of Hydromancy and/or the Crippling Dissipation trait, it makes me slippery as anything, and doubles as another blink if I’m travelling from point to point if I do a quick backwards turn.

The procs of Aegis and Retaliation on both my phantasms and clones with Chaos is also fantastic, and with a high crit power rating, it can manage to do some pretty substantial damage, as well as guaranteeing interrupts on enemy resurrections, oh boy.

Really could go on about staff for days

The survivability tradeoff is far too great.

I used to use it (staff) and couldn’t put it aside until I started to feel the way OP feels about his GS. I found I was relying heavily on the staff for so much survival, and its super good at it. Ran a scepter/torch, but also wanted to get the sword and focus in there. So I dropped the staff and have never looked back.

I don’t favor GS for much the same reason the OP does, and I’ve always seen a lot of mesmers relying on it as that “sniper” DPS weapon that it’s good for. It always seemed to me that it made them really easy targets, and I was smiling evilly at what I knew would inevitably be a sure kill.

shrug

If you’re going to use just one of the two 2Hers, on average the staff should be your pick. It provides amazing defence, good support, and some very good group synergy options with Warlock, Chaos Storm and Fury/Might on AA.

The GS is a specialized long-range sniper weapon. It excels at what it does, but it does very little more so you need to plan for your defence. This is why GS+Staff is such an awesome combination. Plus less Ascended items to craft.

It is 5th post about GS i see in last few days. If you like aggressive play and power build then GS Sword/pistol or GS Sword/sword are your only choice. Try to run after someone with scepter or staff. Staff Scepter/torch cond build works only against aggressive idiots. When i see staff scepter/torch mesmers i laugh at them and run away.
I agree with OP we have huge issue with GS DPS depending on distance. Every war or guard when see you with GS immediately goes to close combat and stays on top of you. GS 1 mediocre GS 3 useless but i don’t see better option.

You may not know, but there is a weapon swap button on the left side of your skill bar.

When the enemy gets close to you, use it, then melee him with sword, or dodge backwards and use your scepter.

When you get some distance, swap back to GS and deal some good damage.

Ptolemy.5086:

It is 5th post about GS i see in last few days. If you like aggressive play and power build then GS Sword/pistol or GS Sword/sword are your only choice. Try to run after someone with scepter or staff. Staff Scepter/torch cond build works only against aggressive idiots. When i see staff scepter/torch mesmers i laugh at them and run away.
I agree with OP we have huge issue with GS DPS depending on distance. Every war or guard when see you with GS immediately goes to close combat and stays on top of you. GS 1 mediocre GS 3 useless but i don’t see better option.

If you cant chase someone using a scepter or a torch, you’re doing it wrong.

I wonder if we have a ‘’mesmer gs hate lobby group’’ or something…

Anyway, Mirror Blade does insane damage. If you trait it with bouncing trait and you’re 1v1, the target get 3 mirror blade. They can crit for over 2K each and it’s on a low cooldown. Don’t forget the might stack and invulnerability. Cast mirror blade and swap to your an another weapon when you’re in close combat ?

If someone is far away, cast iZerker → Mirror Blade → Shatter. Huge burst.

GS/S&T is the way to go. I don’t see how not having a long range weapon is good in anyway. Esp when you are trying to fight condi engis and necro .

Krispera.5087:

I wonder if we have a ‘’mesmer gs hate lobby group’’ or something…

Anyway, Mirror Blade does insane damage. If you trait it with bouncing trait and you’re 1v1, the target get 3 mirror blade. They can crit for over 2K each and it’s on a low cooldown. Don’t forget the might stack and invulnerability. Cast mirror blade and swap to your an another weapon when you’re in close combat ?

If someone is far away, cast iZerker -> Mirror Blade -> Shatter. Huge burst.

I very much like Mirror Blade + Illusionary Elasticity, given that you get Compounding Power + IC going this route I do not know why more people don’t use it.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Ptolemy.5086:

It is 5th post about GS i see in last few days. If you like aggressive play and power build then GS Sword/pistol or GS Sword/sword are your only choice. Try to run after someone with scepter or staff. Staff Scepter/torch cond build works only against aggressive idiots. When i see staff scepter/torch mesmers i laugh at them and run away.
I agree with OP we have huge issue with GS DPS depending on distance. Every war or guard when see you with GS immediately goes to close combat and stays on top of you. GS 1 mediocre GS 3 useless but i don’t see better option.

If you cant chase someone using a scepter or a torch, you’re doing it wrong.

Um, what? How do you chase right using a scepter/torch? You’ve got nothing to slow/stun/whatever to catch up, and they just /laugh and run away (since everything except maybe necro is faster than us). Or am I missing something?

Dhampyr.2104:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Ptolemy.5086:

It is 5th post about GS i see in last few days. If you like aggressive play and power build then GS Sword/pistol or GS Sword/sword are your only choice. Try to run after someone with scepter or staff. Staff Scepter/torch cond build works only against aggressive idiots. When i see staff scepter/torch mesmers i laugh at them and run away.
I agree with OP we have huge issue with GS DPS depending on distance. Every war or guard when see you with GS immediately goes to close combat and stays on top of you. GS 1 mediocre GS 3 useless but i don’t see better option.

If you cant chase someone using a scepter or a torch, you’re doing it wrong.

Um, what? How do you chase right using a scepter/torch? You’ve got nothing to slow/stun/whatever to catch up, and they just /laugh and run away (since everything except maybe necro is faster than us). Or am I missing something?

See, you put in scepter/torch, where’as I said a scepter or a torch. While it’s still possible, I personally wouldn’t favor the two of them together.

All chasing is is a combination of mobility, cc, and sustained dps. Scepter and torch can both be used in a build to that end.

Why is Scepter/Torch the only valid weapon set to pair with a staff all of a sudden?

Ross Biddle.2367:

Dhampyr.2104:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Ptolemy.5086:

It is 5th post about GS i see in last few days. If you like aggressive play and power build then GS Sword/pistol or GS Sword/sword are your only choice. Try to run after someone with scepter or staff. Staff Scepter/torch cond build works only against aggressive idiots. When i see staff scepter/torch mesmers i laugh at them and run away.
I agree with OP we have huge issue with GS DPS depending on distance. Every war or guard when see you with GS immediately goes to close combat and stays on top of you. GS 1 mediocre GS 3 useless but i don’t see better option.

If you cant chase someone using a scepter or a torch, you’re doing it wrong.

Um, what? How do you chase right using a scepter/torch? You’ve got nothing to slow/stun/whatever to catch up, and they just /laugh and run away (since everything except maybe necro is faster than us). Or am I missing something?

See, you put in scepter/torch, where’as I said a scepter or a torch. While it’s still possible, I personally wouldn’t favor the two of them together.

All chasing is is a combination of mobility, cc, and sustained dps. Scepter and torch can both be used in a build to that end.

Der me, apparently reading is hard for me. IMO, though, neither scepter nor torch (or scepter and torch, or scepter or torch, or w/e lol) should be mentioned in the same sentence as chasing, as neither offers anything to assist in that endeavor.

kylwilson.9137:

Why is Scepter/Torch the only valid weapon set to pair with a staff all of a sudden?

Sc/T isn’t the only valid weapon set to pair with staff, not sure where that came from. However, there is good synergy between Sc/T and staff in a condi build – you just can’t chase anything down for the most part.

I was just under the impression that even with staff clones, the staff condition damage is pretty abysmal, and that critical damage and power scale much better with the staff, particularly in the case of Phantasmal Warlock which has marvellous power scaling.

I’ve not had much trouble chasing people down in the aid of both blink and magic bullet, personally. I use staff in the same setup as Sword/Pistol.

GS is situation for me. PVE, most cases I run Sw/P and Sw/F. If there is too much AOE damage flying around in, I will always change to GS for more survivability.

Focus is very good with warden feedback and signet of the ether. You can easy take out 3 / 4 mobs when you cluster them together.

In PVP on the other hand I always run GS. I tried using staff but could not get my head around it. Also do not like the play style.

Blades of Sabatine.5639:

GS is situation for me. PVE, most cases I run Sw/P and Sw/F. If there is too much AOE damage flying around in, I will always change to GS for more survivability.

Focus is very good with warden feedback and signet of the ether. You can easy take out 3 / 4 mobs when you cluster them together.

In PVP on the other hand I always run GS. I tried using staff but could not get my head around it. Also do not like the play style.

I also used GS in PvE as a general weapon for a long time. Then I started experimenting on other weapons and found out that sword/x does a lot more damage, although it puts you right into the fray close to the mob and I was not used to that.

Sword/Focus and Sword/Pistol is what I tend to use now, but it still feels very dangerous especially in these last two big events when there’s AoE everywhere and mobs hit very kitten close range. Sometimes I too swap out GS or Staff just to be safe and kill from range. I feel like I’m not doing as much damage as I could, but I’m a bit safer and in control. It may be that I’m not as used to the sword playstyle yet, though.

Traveller.7496:

Blades of Sabatine.5639:

GS is situation for me. PVE, most cases I run Sw/P and Sw/F. If there is too much AOE damage flying around in, I will always change to GS for more survivability.

Focus is very good with warden feedback and signet of the ether. You can easy take out 3 / 4 mobs when you cluster them together.

In PVP on the other hand I always run GS. I tried using staff but could not get my head around it. Also do not like the play style.

I also used GS in PvE as a general weapon for a long time. Then I started experimenting on other weapons and found out that sword/x does a lot more damage, although it puts you right into the fray close to the mob and I was not used to that.

Sword/Focus and Sword/Pistol is what I tend to use now, but it still feels very dangerous especially in these last two big events when there’s AoE everywhere and mobs hit very kitten close range. Sometimes I too swap out GS or Staff just to be safe and kill from range. I feel like I’m not doing as much damage as I could, but I’m a bit safer and in control. It may be that I’m not as used to the sword playstyle yet, though.

I know what you mean by not doing as much damage as you can, but playing it safe especially with the last two world events is much better. I rather do constant damage then spend more time trying to rez or been rez by other.

Those lost time makes it a lot difficult when trying to finish the event and get the achievements.

My build although not glass, relining on my clones for close combat damage with reflection and then seeing them get killed so fast with all the AOE damage lead me to play with GW.

As they say a dead man cannot help his friends but a live one can.

Lame auto attack??? ……bu bu but its lazers Pew pew pew pew pewpewpew ……

I used to use it all time but not so much now. It’s fine enough weapon but a bit boring and I don’t really like it visual’s or the sound effects. I use it if it’s a boss I don’t want to get close to or I’m feeling lazy in group event. I’d rather use staff as a defensive weapon and sword/X for dpsing which is fairly standard but it works and it’s fun.