Guild Wars 2

Hello,
I am new to the mesmer class (played one in BWE2 to about 9) and I was wondering what everyone thought of Greatsword & sword/sword as weapon sets…

1. Would they work well together with traiting and stat stacking?
2. Are they “dynamic” weapon sets, in that there is more to do and “synergize” with than mashing the 5 buttons?
3. Are they semi PVE viable? Right now my focus is only on PVE. I dont want to struggle in later levels. I’ve read that early levels are difficult for a Mesmer and people get turned off, however, I was having a blast last night with my Mesmer(up to 6).
4. I assume they have fixed the shattering issues? Illusions and Phantasms deal damage when shattered/Mind Wreck?
5, Regarding illusions and phantasms, is it better to shatter them right away, rather than risk them disappearing or dying? Keep in mind I’ll be solo most of the time.
6. What stats would I stack as a Mesmer?(going Greatsword & sword/sword if it is PVE viable).
7. Are there currently any issues with illusions or phantasms? What is the purpose of them in PVE? Do mobs actually get “distracted” by them? Do they deal much damage? Ive only seen the Duelist deal decent damage, so I am questioning the significance of keeping these illusions out.

Any other comments or tips on the class would be appreciated! I was surprisingly engaged when playing my Mesmer last night…I have an 80 Thief which is pretty engaging, and I have a 20 Necro that I began to like, but fell off a bit toward 20…Looking for that second solid alt.

Anyone have any advice? With all the negativity within the class forums, I figure this one would be a breath of fresh air! Someone excited to play the class!

1. yes
2. yes
3. More than semi viable
4. If you time it right, yes.
5. Situational and based on the illusions being used.
6. Read the Bug thread

Try it out. It’s not like it’s a heavy commitment to re-roll.

Negativity? bleh, ignore it all unless its constructive.

1. i have seen stacked condition and toughness specs along with a bunch of other so i guess so, just remember glass canon is glass canon and then theres the rest

2. yep, some of our phantasms will Combo with chaos storm i.e. duelist and our no.2 great sword skill, also its optimal (imo) to not use Choas storm and armor together unless theres no choice.

3. we arevery PvE viable, i felt slow until lvl 10 then its been picking up speed like a rocket ever since, not trouble in solo or groups for me at all, infact i seem to die less in groups than other classes i partner with (from guild) also we can spread all our boons to our allies with a signet so everything we gain from armor and our storm filed we can spread at a whim or any others we pick up along the way.

4. they all deal damage how they should, atleast when i have tested them, however the pathing can be a pain if you hit mind wreck they have to run to the target, im used to this now and am enjoying the challenge but PvP is more problematic for this and not so much PvE in my experience as mobs as always are pretty predictable.

5. completley depends on your playstyle and build, mine is a might stacking build so for example if i need to shatter or want to i will but generally theres two sources of damage me and my warlock phantasm.

6. again depends on play style i have seen what feels like hundreds ill list a few.

scepter/torch(or focus) + Staff – Condition damage
Gsword + Staff – might stacking (my build) and other variations too.
Staff + Sword/Pitsol – Condition and power/procession stacking
sword/torch + scepter/Focus – condition stacking with some melee mixed in but mainly for the dodge + leap skill

then comes the trait lines all these can be compared with condition spreading, crippling, reflection, might, retaliation etc etc,

the list goes on and on we are blessed with all the viable options we have, the ones here are just the ones i have tried but i love my Gsword + Staff!

7. phantasms seem fine illusions also seem fine the only issues i have noticed is the pathing when shattering, oh and illusionary leap is bugged with some terrain.

other: do not limit yourself and experiement we have TONS of options and styles of play available.

2. The only issue with GS and S/S is that, compared to using a staff, you don’t have access to a non-utility field (i.e. Chaos Storm). You do, however, have projectile (Mirror Blade), whirl (Phantasmal Berserker) and two leap finishers (Illusionary Leap and Phantasmal Swordsman), which you can combine with Feedback, Veil or Null Field to decent effect.

3. In general, our AoE abilities are fairly limited. That’s not to say they aren’t effective; just that we have a harder time than other classes tagging mobs with damage in Dynamic Events. Other than that, GS and S/S is perfectly viable in PvE.

4. Mind Wrack still requires our clones and phantasms to run up to the target and explode to deal damage. The daze from Diversion doesn’t stack, so you’ll need to ensure different illusions reach the target at different times to get the most out of shattering three illusions at once. Distortion causes illusions to shatter instantly.

5. This depends on your traits and the encounter. Phantasms tend to account for a good proportion of your damage, particularly if your traits are biased towards phantasm support.

In general, there is no harm to shattering if the shatter would kill the target (since your illusions die with the target) or if the target is about to die anyway; or if the target is about to kill your illusions. If you have two or three phantasms active, you need to balance the time until those phantasms begin their next attack cycle against the cool-down remaining on your summoning abilities.

6. Probably power, precision, crit damage for GS and S/S.

7. The purpose of clones in PvE is largely to distract the target from hitting you. They’re fairly (but randomly) effective. Depending on your build, phantasms will form anything from a decent proportion to the bulk of your damage output. Duellist, berserker, warlock and swordsman all deal fairly decent damage. They’re also your main source of combo finishers (duellist is 20% projectile; berserker is whirl; and swordsman is leap).

There are a number of bugs with illusion traits which need to be ironed out. For a full list, refer to the stickied thread in this forum. Broadly, these include:

(a). The trait which grants fury to phantasms overwrites the trait which grants retaliation to phantasms.

(b). The trait which decreases the time between phantasms’ attack cycles has a disproportionate effect on the Warden but no effect at all on a number of other phantasms.

©. The trait which allows phantasms to give regeneration to allies is only functional on the duellist.

Thanks for the responses. What would you think of a build that centers around sword/sword and Staff? Could I stack power and condition damage? Would that be somewhat viable?

Thanks,

I’m running Staff with Sword/Sword. It’s viable, but another offhand would probably be more versatile. I just like the two-sword blender animation.
To start with, I stacked condition damage, but actually I think it works better with power and Mind Wrack shatters (F1), rather than trying to stack Confusion shatters (F2). I’m respeccing my gear as I upgrade over the next few levels.
I also re-traited for Toughness since L40, and I die less now. However, if you can play well enough to not get hit (I can’t…) this shouldn’t matter.

Good to hear about stacking power. It seems most viable/best specs for classes stack conditions. I want to try to break the mold. My thief is 80 and stacked with condition, my necro is 20 and stacking conditions. I want to try to avoid that stat this time around just to try something new.

So, if I stacked power, that would obviously effect my sword/swod pretty nicely. How would it benefit my staff? With myself and my illusions putting up loads of conditions, how would stacking power benefit me in this scenario?

Thanks,

Umm, from what I can tell, Necros and Engis are the only classes that have a notable skew towards condition damage, although I think Engis can go power pretty well, not sure. Not common from what I can tell though.

Mesmer is fine either way, but at low levels, particularly in PvE, condition damage is pretty meh.

Well, my thief is gorgeous with condition damage. Death blossom + cal trops + Spider venom…watch the world burn around you. easily take out a pack of 5-8 mobs at same level.

Anyways, back to the topic…

Does stacking power benefit the Staff at all?

It’s not super optimal for the Staff, but it’s fine. You would use the Staff as a secondary weapon for the CC, non-damage conditions, defense, clone generation, and iWarlock raw damage.

In many cases, weapons are not “power weapons” or “condition weapons”. Staff is essentially a defensive tanky weapon. How you use it is determined by whether you’re a power- or condition-heavy build.

So I should be ok if I stack Power. Plus, I think on higher level gear, there is a lot of +Power and +Condition damage on one piece.

Are there any traits that work off of critical strikes?

Sharper Images: critical strikes by your illusions (they get your Precision and crit% stat) will inflict a 5 second bleed.

Awsome, so its only one trait. Do many mesmers trait into that?

Most do because it’s easy passive DPS.

Thanks. And last question: What would work better stacking power/condi damage..
Sword/Sword, Sword/Focus, or Sword/Torch?

Thanks,

For raw power + malice with low crit / no Sharper Images, Sword/Torch, although it wouldn’t be significantly better than the other options.

Offhand Sword/Focus/Torch isn’t really a power/malice question. More that Focus has strong utility, OH Sword has strong damage and some defense, and Torch has, hum, stealth and burn.

Thank you sir, you have been a big help.

Sword/Sword (or focus) and Staff (or greatsword) it will be..stacking power and condition damage

Thanks!

For raw condition damage you want some sort of primary delivery mechanism. E.g. Staff as your primary weapon, and/or Sharper Images support.

If you run GS//Sword/Sword, condition damage should not be a focus of your gearing. If you end up with a lot of condition damage for whatever reason, Staff and/or Sharper Images is a good consideration (although SI needs crit% too).

Well, given that staff is a lot more to offer than GS it seems, I might roll staff and sword/sword.

So I am thinking of stacking power > condition > precision or vit

I’ll be rolling sword/sword solo, in groups and DEs ill probably switch to Staff.

Ok so I have to come back to my thread here for some additional chit-chat

I ran around with sword/sword, staff, and greatsword last night. Here is what I noticed(at level 10).

1. illusions die way too quickly, so this makes me believe that I should shatter them almost immediately. Thoughts?
2. With sw/sw: After I spawn a close with illusionary leap, and then trade places, I burn blurred frenzy. Im left with spawning my phantasm and blocking, but after that Im left auto attacking for a few seconds. I feel vulnerable. Am I doing something wrong?
3. I took into consideration everything people have been saying about the Staff, even Mr. Prometheous(or whatever his name is) who was touting the Staff as the best weapon for a mesmer. Honestly, this early on I felt it kind of lackluster. Autoattack forever while the conditions pile up and clones spawn. Theres no need to drop static field or chaos armor unless the situation calls for it (i.e. mobs are closing in or are attacking you). Why waste a cooldown if you do not need it for the defensive purposes? I just found the staff a bit lackluster and at times disjointed/unsmooth.
4. Greatsword: I really liked this. It felt very smooth from one mob to the next. I liked opening with Mirror blade + mind stab, then either spawn the phantasm or just auto attack until dead. My only gripe is, is Mind Stab worth standing still to cast, and worth the time to cast? Or is auto attacking simply better? If mindstab applied cripple or a small bleed, it would be great.

Overall: I can see myself running with the Greatsword/Sword+sword, but I do not want to miss out on what people rave about regarding the staff.

Any insight would be appreciated.

One other note: I did try out sword/focus using the wall to pull in mobs, then pop the phantasm to aoe along with blurred frenzy. 9/10 times the phantasm was dead in seconds.

1: depends how you use them, i find mine lasting a few hits but illusions literally are distractions not tanking tools, and as you get higher in level and unlock more skills and traits you will find it easy as pie to get out illusions at a whim, so bear with it for now.

2: what about weapon switching back to Gsword and blowing them all away? also as mobs do run towards you, you can blurr when they get to you then illusionary then run away then leap, this confuses the AI for a little while so dont just depend on this for offensive uses, you can get quite inventive, jumping off a ledge in PvP then porting back up with leap is fun.

3: use storm offensivley it adds conditions to foes and in turn increases your warlocks damage for the conditions time period, which can be alot.
as for armor thats the one i personally use mostly for defensive purposes, or kamakaze! also the backwards blink is usefull you can shatter for distortion or cripple to gain more space and time too, or use it as a diversion to ranged dealers.

4: mind stab applies 5 vulnerability stacks and will increase your damage by 5% so dont knock it its pretty sweet just have to get used to it but have that stack up warlock and berserker and wow, watch them drop.

for future reference my mindsab hits for arounf 700- at 35 so definatly nothing to sniff at!
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Vulnerability is a condition which increases damage the target takes by 1%. stacking up to 25 times.
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as for the focus the wall pulling i find most usefull in WvW or sPvP to get people away from points or off ledges.

Regarding your answer to #2: Does the AI actually get confused or is it a result of their attack animation resetting when a new “object” is within range of melee?

Also regarding your answer to #2: when sword/sword abilities are on CD, and I switched to Greatsword, I would feel like I am not doing the damage that I can if I stayed at max range and whatnot. If I am in melee range, just finished getting off a frenzy, all things are on CD, I could switch to greatsword but wont the damage be pretty meager?

Thanks,

1. Clones: Depends on playstyle. Can go either way.

2. Sword is a hit-and-run weapon in general use. iLeap is clone + dive. Against mobs in PvE, you can then spam a few autos until the mob is going to attack. Then BF for limited invulnerability. After that is over, you get out or use a different tanking/sit/evasion mechanism.

BF is not a prelude to melee hump. BF is the middle/end of humping a target in melee.

3. Staff is not the “best weapon” for Mesmers, but it is strong and well-rounded. It’s also a bit defensive, so it’s like having survivability training wheels. The clone management is also simplified because leaving them alive is reasonably effective (because they use WOC unlike other clones).

Unless you have a specific offensive strategy with Staff, the Staff is a defensive swap weapon. You use another weapon set as primary, then you swap to Staff for a defensive sequence (retreat / storm / armor, throw in some Warlock for more bang), then back to offense with a different setup.

4. Mind Stab does not really do more raw DPS on a single target than your auto. It is good for multiple targets, or for stripping boons. It is now fast enough that it doesn’t suck kitten to use.

5. Nothing wrong with GS // S/S. When you get a hairy story quest where you are fighting 20 mobs, try out Staff as your swap to drop a chaos storm.

6. iWarden requires specific support to use effectively. You will need to buff him with an Aegis, drop a Blind on the mob, or use the iWarden as your second or third attack (using another clone and phantasm first). It requires its own special learning curve to use effectively.

cesmode.4257:

Regarding your answer to #2: Does the AI actually get confused or is it a result of their attack animation resetting when a new “object” is within range of melee?

Also regarding your answer to #2: when sword/sword abilities are on CD, and I switched to Greatsword, I would feel like I am not doing the damage that I can if I stayed at max range and whatnot. If I am in melee range, just finished getting off a frenzy, all things are on CD, I could switch to greatsword but wont the damage be pretty meager?

Thanks,

it would be meager when there close to you ofcourse but if you have illusinary wave (the push back) you can get at range with doing nothing and the auto attack will do respectable single target and also applying a new stack of vulnerablity + might will up your and your phantasms damage when you switch back, so while things are on CD make sure you optimise and manage the uses for more damaging uptime.
to get back into melee for another blurred there’s always leap up again or teleport when you unlock it, we have lots of options to get in and out of melee range at a whim.

it looks to me as the AI is confused as mobs latley have been stoping for a good 2seconds then turning to run at me again, whether its a terrain bug or not who knows but its a usefull trick for now if your in a tight spot.