Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing the mesmer since beta era. I’ve toyed with shattering and keeping up my clones/phantasms for damage. Has anyone tested the diference in if doing one or the other is actually better or if its just a mechanic that is meant to be used or not used. I l\
know that they are always situational but what about the diference between shatter builds and keeping them up builds? I personally like to use the shatter effects. I love to go 30 points in Illusions just so I can do it more. Any comments/remarks would be very much appreciated. Thanks and if anyone is on Darkhaven you can always look for Sylvar Illumanatus.

Standardization:

PvE: Keep 3 Phantasms up.
Warlock and Duelist: Regen spam.
Warlock: Condition spam.
Duelist and iZerker: Any situation.
Warden: No movement, huge damage.
Mage: See: PvP.

PvP: Shattercat.

For the PvE, you don’t need to worry about speccing into tons of phantasm damage. That’s just for bosses, btw.

Currently Shatter builds are the most powerful Mesmer builds in terms of sheer damage. The beauty of it is that you don’t necessarily sacrifice survivability even if you go full glass cannon.

Phantasm builds are a thing of the past: Phantasms themselves are still good but are generally supplementary to Shattering.

Condition build rely on Illusions to deal damage more than Shattering, but still need to Shatter quite often to maximise (burst) damage.

I run a phantasm build in WvW. Greatly relying on the Berserker for AoE and the Duelist for single target dps (and of course both together with weapon switch apply arround 8 to 12 bleeds) and I love it. I have also many illusions, but they are there to keep me company until I shatter them^^

Shatter isn’t a must be imho. But it is very very strong, and u can use them not only to deal dmg, but also to buy time for survival with f3 and f4…

I don’t shatter often on my sw/sw – GS setup, I mainly let the phantasms do most of the work and spam my mantras, I save the shatters as a finishing move or as some mentioned the f3/4 ones to save my kitten. So no, it’s not 100% needed in pve/wvw

Embolism.8106:

Currently Shatter builds are the most powerful Mesmer builds in terms of sheer damage. The beauty of it is that you don’t necessarily sacrifice survivability even if you go full glass cannon.

Phantasm builds are a thing of the past: Phantasms themselves are still good but are generally supplementary to Shattering.

I don’t think so.It depends on the situation.

In my opinion shattering is better for PvE versus standart mobs. you can easily spam clones and easily shatter and hit multiple enemies with it. Here is shattering > phantasm. Phantasm have lacked with this since the first day and probably will ever be lacking at this.

On a PvE Boss though phantasm are better than shattering. I’ll simply spam the duelist on a bossbattle. If you are smart and place them well, you can more or less have up 3 duelists at all time through the boss battle. And this does crazy damage. 4.5-5.5k DMG with each Duelist + heavy bleedings. Basicaly all 5 seconds 15k dmg + “a lot” bleedings That is superior than any shatterbuild, kittentering does 3-4k at maximum and has even skilled a long CD.

In PvP I cannot talk because I don’t play it.

Conclusion:
PVE Mobhordes: shattering
PVE Bossfights: Phantasm

So basicaly both builds are still viable IMO.

Mephisto Loire.8207:

Embolism.8106:

Currently Shatter builds are the most powerful Mesmer builds in terms of sheer damage. The beauty of it is that you don’t necessarily sacrifice survivability even if you go full glass cannon.

Phantasm builds are a thing of the past: Phantasms themselves are still good but are generally supplementary to Shattering.

I don’t think so. In some situations shattering either one is better than the other one.

In my opinion shattering is better for PvE versus standart mobs. you can easily spam clones and easily shatter and hit multiple enemies with it. Here shattering > phantasm.

On a PvE Boss though phantasm are better than shattering. I’ll simply spam the duelist on a bossbattle. If you are smart and place them well, you can more or less have up 3 duelists at all time through the boss battle. And this does crazy damage. 4.5-5.5k DMG with each Duelist + heavy bleedings. That is superior than any shatterbuild, kittentering does 3-4k at maximum and has even skilled a long CD.

In PvP I cannot talk because I don’t play it.

Conclusion:
PVE Mobhordes: shattering
PVE Bossfights: Phantasm

So basicaly both builds are still viable IMO.

Even then, you can simply time your phantasm shatter as they have long delays between attacks, even with Phantasmal Haste applied.
8k per warlock every 6 seconds (assuming the boss doesn’t move or AoE them) vs shatters/aa’s/skill spams and debuffs applied. It really depends. There are situations where phantasms are better, but in MOST scenario’s, shatter is better.

a long delay… 5 secs are not a long delay IMO. As I calculated abouth (ok, more a rough draft) after setting up you have 15k DMG + bleedings all 5 seconds. and this is only phantasms dmg, you still can relax and hit with GS or Staff or if you’re crazy with Sword.

Assuming you have time to set this up (wich is basicaly only in bossfights I give you that, but as said before I think too that shatter are better for mobhordes) this is unbeatable by any shattering IMO. Shatter just needs a lot of activity from the mesmer and even then it with my full berserk 4.5k Hits with all 4 shatters is maximum I can achieve. And then I have to wait 15 more seconds for cooldown. but after a perfect phantasm set up as a phantasm Mesmer you basicaly have free time which is imo awesome. I can run around buff/rezz Allies. I can drop cauldrons on the dredge fractal boss, or just spam lazy GS autohit on the boss for additional dmg.

Ill stay with it. on bossfights Phantasm > Shattering. Almost Always.