Guild Wars 2

Oh Greatsword.

You and I have had a rollercoaster relationship from the start.

I hated you, because everyone used you.
I loved you, because you shot lazers.

“Much too common!” I said, with my nose held high and arms folded smugly. When I first started playing, every Mesmer on my server ran Sword/Pistol – Greatsword. Focus was taboo, staff was taboo, but yet I refused to be “just another Mesmer.”

So I turned my back on you.

I leveled using Sword/Focus and staff and never regretted it. I eventually branched out and learned Scepter, Offhand sword. Even Pistol found it’s way back into my heart, though it lasted about a good 2 hours before it gathered dust in one of my 12 slot “bags of holding.”

But it would be years before you saw the light of day.

I knew others loved you, I’d seen videos of your performance in WvW, and that only made me rebel against you further… Then it happened almost by accident.
That random drop from a random coffer that bestowed upon me a random Crystal Guardian. Sparkly, shiney, and made my friends wet with envy… so I decided to finally give you a chance after over a year of neglect.

Oh Greatsword! How ignorant I have been!

Yes, you may be labeled as “sucks” in dungeons, but everywhere else? You are a master of your craft! In terms of damage, you vastly outshine every other weapon in the Mesmer kitten nal, hitting like a truck and only getting stronger the farther away you are. I called you uncreative, but I was wrong! Bountiful Interruption and lockdown builds proved that the issue with creativity was my fault, not yours! Your ability to synergize with Mimic to form a shield is glorious, your ability to stack might for support builds is fantastic, and best of all.. Your phantasm is both AoE damage and control all in one! Alas, but your defenses are poor and the Staff has spoiled me. Yet since the staff performs better at close range, and Greatsword at far, it is a perfect marriage!

I let pride, prejudice, and a desire to be “different” drop a veil of ignorance over my eyes. But no more! Oh, greatsword, now and forever will you have a place in my builds. My apologies for a year of neglect.

Welcome home, Chaos.

Funny, I used to love the GS from the start – hands down my favourite weapon.

Awesome animations, awesome visual effects.

Now I never use it unless farming world bosses…

Welcome to the dark side chaos. You finally broke your staff addiction (man that took a while)! Also, you have one of my favorite greatswords ever (I use it) which is a GREAT way to embrace the greatsword.

It really is a great sword.

Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week.

Staff/Sword-Sword is still my favorite Mesmer combination (Oddly, staff and focus are my favorite weapons though.) Greatsword jumped over torch and pistol and its absolutely awesome in WvW

Valarauka.2719:

It really is a great sword.

Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week.

Just don’t lose your focus.

I realized how great it is reminding me to keep 1200 ft distance while testing in the mists. It said " don’t stand at 900 feet unless you are read to dive into the fray". I can be forgetful.
Great for kitting silly guards at camps too :P

Thanks Chaos.

Just because lots of people use greatsword, doesn’t mean it can’t be used in interesting ways. For example, if you are at range, you can cast zerker first if you want to have something to bounce mirror blade off to get a second hit on a solo target. Or you can cast mirror blade as you run in, so you get the bounce and then transfer the increased power from the might stacks over to all your phantasms.

You can use Mind Stab to try rip stability off of a guardian before you use Illusionary Wave. And illusionary wave is lots of fun on bridges and cliffs… Plus you can use it to push thieves out of their houses.

And, while I think that staff is clearly more defensive, greatsword has some neat defensive options. Illusionary wave is pretty straight forward, but you also can get benefits from Bountiful Interruption (for sure offense, but sometimes defensive) when you interrupt people with wave. The other interesting thing is that the two illusions have nice spacing when you use diversion. The mirror blade clone is right next to the target, so you can throw it and hit diversion right away and get a quick daze. And zerker is often spaced a littler further away, so you get a chance at two dazes (especially if your other illusions are things like a duelist or a scepter clone).

Back in my days, Staff used to grant Protection (4) on cast aswell Aegis on first and last tic (5). Back in my days, the staff used to be good in PvE. Back in my days, the staff 4 and 5 had 30 sec cd.

wb Chaos

Decay.2354:

I realized how great it is reminding me to keep 1200 ft distance while testing in the mists. It said " don’t stand at 900 feet unless you are read to dive into the fray". I can be forgetful.
Great for kitting silly guards at camps too :P

You can actually get 1500 range by hitting auto attack… Which is kind of bad since other attacks are out of range at that point. Its worth noting though.

Funny write-up, loved it!

I guess I’m a bit like you in that sense… I never really got the hang of the GS. It works well in WvW but I’m just utterly in love with Staff + Sword/Sword and just can’t let go. :P

To be honest, back in the early days, GS sucked. The animation on attack1 was so slow, you could go on a cigarette break in between the attacks. You go rooted long enough by attack3 to think the game had frozen.

I leveled sword/pistol + staff. But oh, the joy of the GS patch that was the best day in GW2 ever.

Everyone knows that I love the GS. It is unique (GS for ranged, how awesome is that) in this game. Every one knows that I love shatter. For me, that is how the mesmer was created in mind.
Combining those two is a perfect symbiosis.

GS = <3

And then – you went to the dungeons