Guild Wars 2

I ran into a mesmer which looked and played like a condi PU, but had WAY more damage than normal.

He kittented all over my d/p theif. I though I was just playing like a kitten until I watched him do the same to others. A guildie also commented on running into the same sort of build.

iirc, he was running staff/gs which is an odd combo.

Any ideas?

Staff/gs is the general meta shatter setup for tpvp.

It’s not an odd combo.

jefferson.8317:

Staff/gs is the general meta shatter setup for tpvp.

It’s not an odd combo.

Hum, I’ve been out of tPvP awhile, but it doesn’t ring any bells.

jefferson.8317:

Staff/gs is the general meta shatter setup for tpvp.

It’s not an odd combo.

I always thought mainhand sword was needed for a shatter build o.0

Coxy.5269:

jefferson.8317:

Staff/gs is the general meta shatter setup for tpvp.

It’s not an odd combo.

I always thought mainhand sword was needed for a shatter build o.0

Not at all.

Helseth used to run the GS/S shatter build. Mainhand sword is definitely not needed for shatter, it’s all about preference, really.

From what I understand, GS/Staff is more prominent in EU than NA. A lot of NA mesmers are still running S/x in place of staff (at least, pre-patch). Staff is generally a more effective weapon against thieves than a sword combo.

As someone who went from thief main to mesmer main, what you want to do as a d/p thief against a staff mes is stealth up / disengage when he drops chaos storm and pops chaos armor. Both of those stack up a lot of nasty non-damage condis that can really wreck a thief who goes in guns blazing.

GS/Staff is a more defensive take on a shatter build. People usually get Halting Strike with it to compensate from the overall loss of burst from using staff. The reason people started running it was actually to survive longer against thieves and warriors.

Raunchy.6891:

GS/Staff is a more defensive take on a shatter build. People usually get Halting Strike with it to compensate from the overall loss of burst from using staff. The reason people started running it was actually to survive longer against thieves and warriors.

The staff is much more than just a defensive weapon. It provides fantastic mobility if you know the phase retreat spots

Perhaps the mesmer in question had the new torment shatter? That would explain the condition spam. Mind you the OP didn’t mention shatters so it might be something else…

jefferson.8317:

Raunchy.6891:

GS/Staff is a more defensive take on a shatter build. People usually get Halting Strike with it to compensate from the overall loss of burst from using staff. The reason people started running it was actually to survive longer against thieves and warriors.

The staff is much more than just a defensive weapon. It provides fantastic mobility if you know the phase retreat spots

There aren’t nearly as many of those as there used to be, at least from what I’ve tested. Also mobility can be used offensively yes, but for the most part phase retreat is a defensive skill.

Yep, shatter build.

Just the first time I had run into that particular setup.

I actually use to main mesmer in tPvP. :P

Yes Shatter/GS, usually known as ranged shatter is very strong and rightly has been the mesmer meta in EU tpvp. Such a great set of weapons and it also works very well with power block + shatter.

As for the guy above querying phase retreat mobility – about face/phase retreat/about face is like a second blink for mobility if you can pull it off. There are youtube videos to show you how.

And you can reduce Phase Retreat to a 5 second cooldown, so…