Guild Wars 2

So I decided to make a second Mesmer afree not playing one in 1+ years, I remember seeing an old post comparing Zerker to Assassin’s on Mesmer, where they were withing marginal ranges of each other but Assassin’s winning out in most situations. My question is is this still true today?

Yeah, they’re still close enough that my recommendation is to do whichever is cheaper/more convenient.

From my understanding Assassin’s was better because reflects can crit, and use our crit stats to determine if they do crit.

Moving into Raids with HoT we didn’t see any reflectable abilities on that first boss (I think they may have been spooked by what we’ve done to Lupicus), so I’ve personally switched my stats to zerker, since the damage difference was close enough that it was basically a “what do you have / what can you craft” situation already, the raids have tipped me into the zerker court.

Like Fay says, they’re pretty close.

IIRC, Zerker comes out ahead slightly in the majority of situations. Assassin comes out ahead dramatically in reflect-heavy fights (but there aren’t many any more). Assassin has a side benefit of more Sharper Images procs, but it doesn’t have the Condition Damage to capitalise on them, nor do we have any interesting interactions with Bleeding.

Thank you everyone for the Feedback, I guess I will find a balance between both and my in game wallet. To find what best suits me.

Fury being essentially infinite in party-based activities means Berzerker will always have the edge over Assassin.

Arshay Duskbrow.1306:

Fury being essentially infinite in party-based activities means Berzerker will always have the edge over Assassin.

Back when these two sets were mathematically put against each other, Assassins outperformed Berserkers in direct damage in fully-buffed situations (fury, banners, 25 might, etc) and Berserkers outperformed Assassins in under-buffed situations.

Fencer’s Finesse. Aslong as the target is not a structure (you can crit it) assassin is better than zerk dps wise, even when ignoring reflects. When taking reflects into consideration, assassin stats are even better. The only way for a zerker to outshine an assassin mesmer is when both are completly unbuffed or when the target is not critable.

This is good info, thanks everyone.

I kinda regret crafting Assassin gear for my new mesmer now…

They’re close enough that I’d go with Berserker. It’s more generally useful across professions so if you don’t have enough $$$ to make Ascended sets for all your characters you can just swap it between them.

Morbyd.3761:

I kinda regret crafting Assassin gear for my new mesmer now…

Why? You should care about min/maxing your assassins/berserker gear when it actually matters – ie very organized speedruns and/or reflect bombs. In both cases Assassins wins, especially in the reflect niche. All other cases you technically “should” use berserkers but realistically the difference and value of your min/maxing by going berserkers is so small you won’t be able to tell a difference, even with a dps meter – we’re talking about 1% or less.

If anything, the only time you should “regret” getting assassins is when you shoot past 100% crit. And even then not always, it’s actually a good thing to go past 100% if your enemy is higher than lvl 80.

frifox.5283:

Why? You should care about min/maxing your assassins/berserker gear when it actually matters – ie very organized speedruns and/or reflect bombs. In both cases Assassins wins, especially in the reflect niche. All other cases you technically “should” use berserkers but realistically the difference and value of your min/maxing by going berserkers is so small you won’t be able to tell a difference, even with a dps meter – we’re talking about 1% or less.

If anything, the only time you should “regret” getting assassins is when you shoot past 100% crit. And even then not always, it’s actually a good thing to go past 100% if your enemy is higher than lvl 80.

Fair enough. It helped level my tailoring and claws are cheaper than bloods anyways.

And to make lupi kneel is so rewarding

Any suggestions for this? Just a quick throw together to try and maximize Crit while not sacrificing too much power.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhEQNAs8NnsIClphloBUrhFVDiMAjo4ldoEDAtLp5KA-TRSBABPt/goq/YmSwrUeExJAojDCAe6FITJGAPAgAAHA/234bw5nf+5nfe/+7v/+7vlCIPZWA-e

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Any suggestions for this? Just a quick throw together to try and maximize Crit while not sacrificing too much power.

I would aim for a max of 70% personal crit rate, taking into consideration all food, runes, sigils, etc. For organized group content you’ll likely have fury (20%), ranger spotter (7%), and warrior banner (8%) which will put you at a final of 105% crit chance; the max I would shoot for in raids.

Ok, that build I linked has 70% with food and utility buffs

It’s at 75%, which after buffs puts you at ~110%, you can easily drop the zerker earrings and probably switch to 100 power 70 ferocity food. This puts you at like ~68% crit, but you’ll be over 100% with banners and spotter.

you can also get back to 70% with swapping your armor to precision infusions, I’m assuming you don’t have all mighty ones and this is speculation so its not a big change.

Or if you’re set on that gear and stats, just switch to power ferocity food to utilize the power and ferocity more than the crit you’ll be wasting.

Don’t have the gear or infusions yet, I am lining everything out so I can craft it all in one go. So any suggestions are appreciated.

Out of curiosity, what would be the minimum personal crit chance? At least over 50%? I feel like I want some toughness and vitality for the raid and HoT maps so some Valkyrie and Captain would be in the mix of my Berserker/Assassin setup.

According to your editor link, I want you to know that ranger runes 6th bonus no longer work on mesmer with their phantasms. Maybe they revert this tomorrow tough :/ I’d like so…

According to some testings of a friend of mine (so unconfirmed by my own testings), for a lv82 mob you need like 110% crit chance and for a lv84 mob probably about 120% to reach “true” 100% crit chance. Therefore 110% crit chance may be a good goal for some enemies.

We also haven’t seen the new food yet, from the cook at 500. Maybe there are total different nourishment buffs aviable like +10% dmg from reflections / companions, after evading / blocking +300 power / precision / ferocity for X sec etc. The possibilities are limitless.

Hmm I could have sworn it was all summoned minions which include Phantasms and clones

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Hmm I could have sworn it was all summoned minions which include Phantasms and clones

Used to, got nerfed.

So it looks like I will be using Opal orbs till something better comes along

BlaqueFyre.5678:

So it looks like I will be using Opal orbs till something better comes along

It did and it’s called Scholar Runes and Eagle Runes to a lesser extent.

Yeah, for scholar I will have to grind… I mean save up the gold for. While I have a bank full of Opals.

And are Eagle runes that good comparitivley?

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Yeah, for scholar I will have to grind… I mean save up the gold for. While I have a bank full of Opals.

And are Eagle runes that good comparitivley?

Eagle runes fall off compared to scholar. But they’re much cheaper.
Tbh, I’ve always thought it weird that they gave scholar 10% and eagle only 7%. Scholar tends to be up the whole fight, Eagle by definition is only up half the fight (or less, with thieves/eles around to burn down the second half), and power > precision point for point.

Edit: and if they do change Ranger to count illusions again, Ranger will almost certainly be better than Eagle.

Ok, makes sense so I should just save up for Scholars.

Better wait for the patch where new runes may arrive and scholar price will drop for sure. I doubt anyone keeping 90% hp in the jungle for a good amount of time, neither in raids. But let’s see.

Here you go: I’ve once made a definitly correct excel document about eagle vs scholar and zerk vs “how much” assassin.

There is personal and phantasmal damage, aswell reflected and normal damage, aswell unbuffed and buffed.

It took me some time to print screen everything in excel xD But if you have any questions, go ahead!

greez Xyonon