Guild Wars 2

I’m playing my mesmer with GS/staff, so I’m usually trying to keep my distance from enemies. Is causing the shatter effect on myself an effective thing to do with this play style? I’m assuming I’ll need to be close to the enemy like my illusions in order for it to work.

IP is generally used up close and personal, yes. There -are- perks to having it as a ranged build, such as being able to hit Diversion or Daze to gain a few precious seconds to get away – Or finish off that last little bit of HP.

But unless you just need to be that far into Illusions, or you’re running a melee build, I feel that having IP as a ranged player is kind of a waste.

Thank you sir. Any recommendations on what to switch to then? I was planning on going for a 20/20/0/0/30 build with a focus on keepaway/shattering. I think my build can stay the same for the most part, but what should I do with those extra point now?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQJARWlwzaqXVTqGa9ICaGa31RSRrlalUMbXIA

Drop GS and go Staff + Sword/Pistol. Other than Greatswords push ability that is on a long cooldown, Pistol has much more control. GS is counter-productive to 30 Illusions really. I also find Pistol is better than Focus.

Go 10/30/0/0/30

dhocke.1536:

Thank you sir. Any recommendations on what to switch to then? I was planning on going for a 20/20/0/0/30 build with a focus on keepaway/shattering. I think my build can stay the same for the most part, but what should I do with those extra point now?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQJARWlwzaqXVTqGa9ICaGa31RSRrlalUMbXIA

I’d suggest either putting them into Duelist, or leaving them in Illusions.

For duelist, your clones will cause confusion on death – Which is okay, but not really important. The point there is getting a little more precision and +5% crit damage for your shatters.

For illusions, it’s just switching out IP for Imbued Diversion. the AoE daze/stun from your shatter can be useful for when something catches up and you need to avoid it.

I’d also suggest swapping out “clone at 25%” HP for Extended manipulations range, and Mirror Images for blink. I’m not sure if you’ve tried this yet, but between Deceptive Evasion, Greatsword Training, and Illusionist Celerity, you pump out clones far faster than specifically necessary for your shatters.

Adding Mirror Images to that seems like a waste of a utility where you could have the 1200 range teleport to help you with kiting, when you get caught in stuns/immobilizations, and just general field-traversing.

Since you’re focusing on keep away and damage avoidance, you’re probably going full berserker gear, right?

If not, I’d definitely suggest it. The constant crits you get from the high pre keeps vigor nearly always up, which provides you plenty more dodges, and in extension, plenty more clones. Also, the stacked crit damage makes your constant crits a nice damage spike – and any shatters you do, between +20% Damage and +10% crit chance, essentially melt the faces of everything in their radius.

Since you’re planning on using GS/some other weapon for keep away, rather than the traditional sword/pistol or sword/focus melee-shatter build, you can sacrifice a lot of your up-front survivability and rely on things like LoS, kiting and dodging to keep you alive in exchange for a massive spike in damage output.