Guild Wars 2

one of the stuff i grown to be addicted to is seeing a Mesmer using a great sword to fight.
I never got to think if it does benefit in any role to use Great Sword with a mesmer, i played with it and didn’t find any points of pros (or cons) for it that worth mentioning except for it having a good way to deal with long range mobs coming at you and a wave attacking you at that moment.

anyone who played with Great Sword Mesmer please give your thoughts

The GS puts out solid non-condition damage, can keep enemies out of your face, can strip boons, grants might, and its our highest aoe damage weapon (sword/ might go higher in theory, but in practice you need to move around too much to maximize its aoe damage). It also has the fastest attacking clones of all three weapons (good for sharper image procs). Imo it pairs best with the staff.

Greatsword is a lot better now. Quite a few of its problems before involved its attack speed and animation for two of its attacks, which have been improved now.

Its benefits include a non-LOS dependent Phantasm, very long range, and a really big knockback. If you are stuck in melee range and can’t get away though, switch to something else if all you have left is the auto-attack. It doesn’t have a lot of defensive options.

thanks ill try adding GS now in my mesmer

i really like the GS since it has a knockback that helps you greatly even in stick situations, a proper mix of single and multitarget dmg and maybe most of all a quick illusion production that takes a lot of damage away from your allies in dungeons.
with the master trait in domination you can throw your sword like every 4.5 seconds. i didnt check if but that should be close to the scepters clone production but also boosts your partys damage by debuffing vulnerability and buffing might (12 stacks, with elasticy 15 stack, shared beween the targets hit)

I’ve gone back and forth between Staff and Greatsword. Every time I play with GS, I end up missing the defensive elements of the staff – namely Chaos Storm and Phase Retreat. Also I usually play with sword/focus as my other set, and I love dropping Chaos Storm on my Warden while she’s dancing

However, I see plenty of people rave about GS. Do the players who love GS love it more for PvE or for WvW/sPvP?

Is the loss of the Staff’s defensive abilities worth the damage/might gain of the GS?

That’s why you usually mix GS + Staff.

GS is quite good for a few reasons. It meshes well with raw (non-condition) damage builds focusing around Sharper Images, due to the Clones using a 3-hit attack.
It also works extremely well with on-interrupt effects since you can interrupt multiple targets with the knockback.

It’s big downside is how “simple” it is. It’s a very good weapon for WvW defence, but it’s not really better than the staff outside of that, since that still offers much better group support.

I use the Greatsword as my main weapon and I have it paired with a Staff. I find the high range and the damage to be great when soloing and the clones and phantasms it summons are very useful too. I usually open up with Chaos Storm and Chaos Armor on multiple mobs and quickly switch to my GS to finish ’em off.

Hmm. I might have to try GS/Staff and see how that works. I like the idea of coupling Chaos Storm with my GS. I’d miss my Warden, but the Berserker is nice too.

Are you guys running mostly a domination/chaos/illusions trait build?

Since the fix to GS, I switched to Staff/GS and like it.

@Robotsonik.
I run a support build and Staff/GS is really a very good weapon combo for it.

Level 70 at the moment

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgUQJAWRlwziqXVzoGa9IhpC9+0Dl38njSx1zOA

here’s the link again
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgUQJAWRlwziqXVzoGa9IhpC9+0Dl38njSx1zOA

I’m usually running GS/Staff or GS/Sword+Focus in WvW. Focus for the dragging power if we’re attacking a keep or tower. Though I won’t say staff is a “great” weapon, it certainly has its uses. When defending a wall it can be really tricky to make your Phantasmal Warlock do anything, which means the useful stuff in Staff at that point is Chaos Storm and autoattack. Basically using it because of the lack of options (Sword pointless from a wall and Scepter is just horrible in general), something which disturbs me a bit with the Mesmer.

GS however is a very strong weapon, it has a high damage output from the Phantasm, the AoE knockback is just lovely and Mirror Blade is extremely fun to use Mind Stab remains however, in my opinion, one of the very worst weapon skills in the game.

Duelist > Swap > Zerker > Bouncing Blade > Mind Stab > Swap > Stun pistol.
Mix in shatters when stuff is about to die.

I did prefer when Mind Stab was auto target.

Keep in mind that mind stabs makes you stand still when using which is a problem.
But now when its a ground target, you also have to concentrate on putting it out.

Mind stab has always been a problem because it roots you in place which is a major issue when you are a squishy class that relies on keeping moving and summoning illusions to distract your foes.

I’ve been using the GW/Staff combo since about level 20 and love it. Nothing touches me and I have constant spawning of illusions to keep enemies busy.

Greatsword’s pretty much one of the best Mesmer weapons. It’s more or less the best Sharper Images condition weapon and the best direct damage power weapon with Elasticity.