Guild Wars 2

Pretty much every mesmer I see nowdays in wvwvw is some sort of PU condition build. They wreck me all the time.

I tried it but I missed shatter so much that I went back, but I do understand the strenght of PU builds.

I used to win 1v1 duels all the time some months ago.. but lately everyone and their mom is running tanky condition builds I have no chance against.

Short answer: Yes.

Well the typical shatter build, 20/20/0/0/30 or 0/20/20/0/30 has poorish condition removal for the current state of the game. That may change in the future, and it would be cool to see a build that could work with shattered conditions, but going 30 into inspiration would make the mesmer give up so many other things.

Maybe shatter will be more popular after next months patch but don’t count on it. I kinda always found the mindwrack burst to be sorta underwhelming compared to phantasm or even condition. Shatter is also much harder to play as the people who use it well need to poop out clones and shatter whenever the enemy is vulnerable.

Whay you guys talk about , i can 1 hit any ambient out there !

I think its just monkey see monkey do, I call em YouTube clones. If o
Osi posted a new batch of shatter videos you’d see shatter YouTube clones weed up.

I like seeing the direction some people are taking the interrupt builds. I’d like to also see some glassy phantasm or shatter builds showcase the traveler runes. They are doing wonders for the dps guardian who previously shared our plight of slow movement.

There are a few shatter builds that aren’t really dead. Osicat’s Shatter Heavy 3.0 build still works well as it uses Hoelbrak runes (-20% condition duration and -40% conditional duration Food for a total of -60% condition duration (reduces stuns too).

It is still viable, especially in groups where you can contribute Might to your group via Signet of Inspiration because the build stacks Might using AoE Interrupts (Bountiful Interruption) via Focus pull, F3 daze and Chaos Storm daze.

I stopped using shatter in like May… The play style is fun and such but you are more vulnerable than a thief if you get focused. Been running tanky builds for awhile. Just more fun to be able to stand a 1vx for a much longer time.

Shatter isn’t dead. Anet just gave us – gasp – some build diversity! Shatter specs haven’t really been nerfed.. but you’re definitely gonna need some condition removal nowadays.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Shatter isn’t dead. Anet just gave us – gasp – some build diversity! Shatter specs haven’t really been nerfed.. but you’re definitely gonna need some condition removal nowadays.

Yeah… and we all just happen to love the class with -gasp- worst innate condi removal…. Seriously hope they give us something besides “this mantra now cleanses conditions from allies TOO!” Our allies are fine in self condi clear. We are the ones that suck at it lol.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Shatter isn’t dead. Anet just gave us – gasp – some build diversity! Shatter specs haven’t really been nerfed.. but you’re definitely gonna need some condition removal nowadays.

Not only that, we used to ~all be Shatter-spec. Now we no longer are (but still quite a lot), it feels like “no one is shatter anymore”.

• after blurred frenzy got nerfed..
• condi meta..
• high survival meta..
• and some low damage
  Mind Wrack 952.5 avg. weapon strength [1 coefficient = 335.57] power 916
  *x1 1.15 385.90
  *x2 0.89 0.92 298.65 to……..607.37
  *x3 0.83 0.80 0.77 258.39+268.45+278.52 to…. 805.36
  *x4 0.83 0.80 0.80 0.77 ……….1073.81 to……….5369 (if all to 5 targets)
  DPS: 0.80 to……..3.2………16

[tested on pvp side]

i mean example if u ve power 2000 and 40cchance and 70critdamage u can do to 2600 armor target..

u can do avarage direct damage as 3470 with 4 illison of Mind Wrack with trait 4164 if they hit and if u do to aeo with bl u get some really nice retal.. exp 12(8blfrenzy +4 clones) x exp 290 = 3480 retal damage if 1 has retal if 2 has retal x2 or x3 to x5 or and if they ve chaos armor get some really nice confusion stack.. example http://youtu.be/yecRyBzCbW0

I was playing shatter mesmer and i spend a lot time with this game hen playing mesmer because it was fun like every setup it had some problems like (switfness problem : based on runes generally etc)but it was very fun for me. I know game is changing like everything but i really dont understand why they nerfed hard or why all online game firms must change classes like this(and question on my mind if u plan to changed hard to shatter why u give us these abilities and why u showed us shatter is unique skill of mesmer )I started mesmer bc of shatters and i liked to play after few months they forced to play another build.Why ? I know ur ideas when reading this , they dont remove shatter u can still play but if i remove stealth from game still thiefs can kill people but its not logical act.
End of the stroy my opinion and many of friends , shatter is dead . If we are talking about pushing skills , yes u can still click and these icons
I dont play gw2 these days because i dont like conditions , i dont wanna play condition /debuff class , boring for me
(sorry for bad grammer but i wanna explain my feelings this is not qq , i stoped play and everything solved but still miss my mesmer )

I think shatter isn’t in a bad spot for roaming for WvW. You see a LOT of warriors and thieves now who are easier to beat with a shatter spec. You can burst down a thief from 70% hp and a warrior, you can kite and spike. Conditions specs are also effective for these classes but less as they don’t have that pressure (especially against warrior). I just got back to shatter after playing 2 months of condition PU and it feels good to have great damage. If you use your skills well, you can avoid a lot of damage. But you need to use your environment.

Shatter is very unforgiving though. Condition PU might just be the easiest build ever because you have high toughness, lots aegis, lots of stealth and you kitten clones. Shatter is very deadly but comes with a high risk. I think if the condition removal gets better (remove 3 conditions per shatter maybe in a useful line so it’s the equivalent of Cleansing Ire, that shatter mesmer is one of the most balanced builds there is for any class. Hit hard, get hit hard but play well and get rewarded.

I’m going to continue playing shatter mesmer for now and hope for some buffs. It’s probably the most fun gameplay for me there is.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Shatter isn’t dead. Anet just gave us – gasp – some build diversity! Shatter specs haven’t really been nerfed.. but you’re definitely gonna need some condition removal nowadays.

Incorrect. All shatter builds had better peripheral, or direct confusion damage pre confusion nerf. Now a HUGE amount of shatter damage is gone and cannot be replaced.

High defense builds are more forgiving. You can live long enough to run away from most good players and can whittle down the bad ones.

It really does come down to what people are posting videos of. If someone posted a double-staff mantra build you’d see a ton of them everywhere because most players are just looking for a strong build to compensate for other areas.

The thing is mesmers high offense builds have gotten nerfed hard…. Leaving us only with somewhat decent defense options. We can have aegis and protection up all the time. But so can a guard… We lack the passive heal over time to make us something to actually win an attrition fight.

Shatter Mesmer here, the only build I’ve played with at 80 so far.

Things I can say about shatter build:

*It heavily relies on AI and iLeap, both are very unreliable.
*It’s a burst build, if your combo fails, you’ve gotta try survive until your cooldowns reset.
*You’re a glass cannon, if you don’t get the drop on your target(s) you’re dead.
*You get lag you’re dead.
*Most WvW players are stacking survival stats these days so you can’t burst anyone.
*You can either chose condition removal, or portal, with out portal what are you? A kitten thief.

I’m not bitter at all.

In a group setting shatter in wvw can be fantastic. The sword focus can be very helpful to your group along with the aoe boon removal. Of course the burst that it also can provide is crazy. However in a solo roaming situation I will agree it is ok but PU simply counters it very harshly.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Shatter isn’t dead. Anet just gave us – gasp – some build diversity! Shatter specs haven’t really been nerfed.. but you’re definitely gonna need some condition removal nowadays.

Incorrect. All shatter builds had better peripheral, or direct confusion damage pre confusion nerf. Now a HUGE amount of shatter damage is gone and cannot be replaced.

That is true.

Though shatter traits weren’t directly nerfed, the universal Mesmer changes (Chaos Armor change, Blurred Frenzy nerf, the obnoxious Quickness nerf and even more obnoxious Confusion nerf) have hit hard.

… And I’m still trying to figure out why they felt the need to gut Immortal specs.

@ …dat build diversity…

Yeah immortal specs were gutted along with glamour. At least we are exploring the world of interrupts and what we can accomplish with them. Also we haven’t explored signets yet except for 1 spec. So we honestly haven’t seen all the build diversification yet.

I like the decrease in numbers of Shatter Mesmers.
At the moment, Shatter Mesmers are the only thing I REALLY fear when I roam with my thief (and no, I am not a GC thief) :]

Still it’s sad. I played shatter mesmer for a while (a variation of Osi’s Shattercat Heavy) and it was really fun. But I agree, the moment I saw a Necro, or worse, an Engi (they’re becoming really popular these days), I was pretty much doomed.

stealth is extremely OP so everyone is just cheesing it if its available to their class. Phantasm build is also very strong with PU but i think condi clone spam is still better

Short story? Yes.
Long story? Basically yes.

I really dislike shatter these days which is a shame because I had been playing shatter for 8 months since launch.

1. There’s really only one spec. Maybe 10 trait points of wiggle room, that’s it.
2. No condition removal in a condition heavy meta. Not helped by the by the trait requirements.
3. People have gotten much better at dodging shatters.
4. Related to 1-3: Requires a lot of team support to be effective.

I still shatter in pvp and dont really see it being “dead”.

Although, some professions got faceroll builds where they have alot of room for error and extremely high damsge.

Im looking at stunlock war, condi necro and spirit ranger…

You have to have an extremely good reaction if you want to counter a hammer… All they have to do is manage cooldowns/combos and let passive regen do its work. Their tankiness allows plenty mistakes, while we can lose about 50% hp in seconds if we make a mistake.
I still enjoy fighting these though. Pve boss fights should be stunlock warriors! (Quick telegraphed mobile moves that dont deal 20k damage, but actually feels like it had an impact without killing you)

I dont really have trouble with condi necro… unless they use plague signet.
Activation is pretty much instant and nukes the kitten out of you…
Just the other day i got a necro to 33%, me being 80%… He used the plague signet.
From that point i was unable to damage or evade him, and i got nuked in about 7 seconds >__<.

A spirit ranger is really passive when it comes to combat… The auto attack does the highest damage and you have to avoid it somehow x.x

Shatter isnt dead. Its a medium reward/extremely high risk build.

Fotm builds have a very low skill floor and are very effective with minimal effort >__<.

I love shatter and i will insist on playing it untill the day they remove illusionary persona or spmething >_>

Damage done = (Weapon Strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)

Mesmer
simple shatter combo
prepare 1.45sec to……2 sec required for 2 clones

• iLeap + Swap + BF + F1 time required 3.45sec
  if with 2 is total 5.45sec required for this combo start to finish
  it ll total do BF2.37 + 2.4MW(3clones) = 4.77 coefficient/ time = 0.87.. dps

with 4 clones 5.57coefficient/time = 1.02 coefficient dps

Thief

• Cloack and dagger + B-stab (B) + Auto attack chain + Double Strike + Wild Strike time required 5.28sec wich is total 6.9595/time = 1.32

thief can ~%50 give more damage same in short sec than mesmer as well thief can continue to his dps.. different is mesmer is aoe burstting where cuz of retal, chaos armors, etc etc.. u can die.. where this effects doesnt effect much to thief. and in competitive matches u can see all time retal.. So example Whats the point bf got nerfed? it absolutely destroy shatter mesmer.. so i ll chase 1 players? let the thiefs do that spikes.. and where the tooltips for MW are not exatly numbers.. is it nerfed without noticed? i remember long agos it was giving more damage?

Too many nerfs to shatter to make it worthwhile, not to mention the whole synergy with trying to get condition clears and make an effective shatter build. Shattered conditions is a grandmaster trait in the phantasm build line, wth? Then you need 30 in illusions for the persona. Leaves u 10 points that have to go in dom for mental torment. But now you dont have deceptive evasion which is a must.

This leaves you with a really poor build that needs to be changed, nothing in dueling for the damage u need, no quicker recharge on any weapon set, no deceptive evasion. So u drop the persona to pick up 10 points in dueling for blade training, but you are losing the damage of an extra clone shatter.

So you ditch the shattered conditions and run with null field every 40 seconds and sacrifice your runeset/food buffs to deal with them(heres a hint you are still going to die to them), and are pretty much forced into greatsword even though ud rather run staff for the extra survivability granted by phase retreat. I mean with blurred frenzy nerf u are going to need it.

So bunker down, strap on some condi dmg runes(pick a set), equip a staff, scepter and torch and spam those condi’s and stealth.

Eh, when I saw the post, I went and changed back my build and was nostalgic.

I feel so naked when I play shatter. You’re wide open after a Mind Wrack. Your opponent is not confused by your clone generation and you lose your ‘’meat shield’‘. Also, when a player is running away, your clones can’t keep up with them.

I tend to shatter when there are opportunities now. I save 3 and 4 for defensive purposes.

I’ll stay with my shatter spec and go do some pvp and wvw in the bloodlust area to see if I’m not rusty with shatter. Thanks for bringing it up !

Chorazin.4107:

Too many nerfs to shatter to make it worthwhile, not to mention the whole synergy with trying to get condition clears and make an effective shatter build. Shattered conditions is a grandmaster trait in the phantasm build line, wth? Then you need 30 in illusions for the persona. Leaves u 10 points that have to go in dom for mental torment. But now you dont have deceptive evasion which is a must.

This leaves you with a really poor build that needs to be changed, nothing in dueling for the damage u need, no quicker recharge on any weapon set, no deceptive evasion. So u drop the persona to pick up 10 points in dueling for blade training, but you are losing the damage of an extra clone shatter.

So you ditch the shattered conditions and run with null field every 40 seconds and sacrifice your runeset/food buffs to deal with them(heres a hint you are still going to die to them), and are pretty much forced into greatsword even though ud rather run staff for the extra survivability granted by phase retreat. I mean with blurred frenzy nerf u are going to need it.

So bunker down, strap on some condi dmg runes(pick a set), equip a staff, scepter and torch and spam those condi’s and stealth.

yup. you nailed down the problem with shatter and codis there, hopefully a dev sees this

I’m still playing shatter. It’s hard vs healing signet warriors and necros using signet of kill-a-mesmer but those are op anyway.

Currently i’m using 20/20/0/0/30 gs + sword/torch for roaming (solo and group) and switch the gs for staff when dueling.

/edit: Retaliation is also quite a pain because of BF and gs auto-attack hitting multiple times. I have to play phantasm-like against it but it’s doable.

GS #3 and Torch #5 are still crap, though.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Yeah immortal specs were gutted along with glamour. At least we are exploring the world of interrupts and what we can accomplish with them. Also we haven’t explored signets yet except for 1 spec. So we honestly haven’t seen all the build diversification yet.

The major problem I have with interrupts is latency. If you live next door to the server, good for you. If you’re on the other side of the world, gg is the nice thing I can say.

aaron.7850:

Chorazin.4107:

Too many nerfs to shatter to make it worthwhile, not to mention the whole synergy with trying to get condition clears and make an effective shatter build. Shattered conditions is a grandmaster trait in the phantasm build line, wth? Then you need 30 in illusions for the persona. Leaves u 10 points that have to go in dom for mental torment. But now you dont have deceptive evasion which is a must.

This leaves you with a really poor build that needs to be changed, nothing in dueling for the damage u need, no quicker recharge on any weapon set, no deceptive evasion. So u drop the persona to pick up 10 points in dueling for blade training, but you are losing the damage of an extra clone shatter.

So you ditch the shattered conditions and run with null field every 40 seconds and sacrifice your runeset/food buffs to deal with them(heres a hint you are still going to die to them), and are pretty much forced into greatsword even though ud rather run staff for the extra survivability granted by phase retreat. I mean with blurred frenzy nerf u are going to need it.

So bunker down, strap on some condi dmg runes(pick a set), equip a staff, scepter and torch and spam those condi’s and stealth.

yup. you nailed down the problem with shatter and codis there, hopefully a dev sees this

They’re to busy trying to balance necros and further buff warriors for that nonsense.