Guild Wars 2

Curious if anyone know’s if a Phantasm build is viable for roaming / small man / 10-15 man wvw? I’ve been having a hard time after being away from the game for over a year and a half re-adjusting to a Shatter glass build, and was leaning towards phantasm’s as im a sucker for high dmg numbers and all.. Any and all help would be appreciated.

Currently running Bamf Joe’s shatter setup.

Solo play sure, useless for anything above that. 10-15 man, forget about it. The amount of AoE thrown around make it impossible to use phantasms, not to mention any sort of group combat require you to constantly move with the group. You cant take time to set up your phantasms. The only one that work decently is the GS berserker but its pointless to focus your build on it.

The high numbers are generally only achieved against PvE bosses (iWarlock smacking them for 15-20K damage but that’s impossible against a player)

Shatter is pretty good for solo, too.

Heck in most solo fights, Shatter will be better than Phantasm.

Hmmm, phantasm build might be good for duels. I think shatter build would work better for your 3-20 WvW fights. Rip boons, shatter, use mass invis, be on gank squad – these would be great for team plays. Phantasms might die too quickly to be effective in a 3-20 WvW fight what with all the AoE.

Appriciate the replies!! I assume the go to build for shatter mes is 4-4-0-0-6?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsaWlknpMtNqxTNcrNCrxg6sS7MSOQAlMkrB-TFyHABas/wa6DQUtC9UVhJlg9o8bgnAAAnCgAAIA3sNbzbGYoDdoDdoDtbezhO0bezSBMqwI-w

That’s the build im currently using, anything mis traited/gear wise?? Otherwise perhaps I just need to practice.

Phantasms in 10-15 and zergs will get a little buff next patch with Triumphant Distortion, but that’s pretty much it…

The buff won’t address the offensive problem with phantasm builds, you have an iZerker that hit a group of enemies and got destroyed the moment it finishes its attack. Then for the rest of 20s (shorter if traited) you lack phantasm to do damage. iSwordsman and iWarlock may survive to deliver high single damage, iDuelist and iWarden probably won’t survive to finish the attack.

However I’m quite interested in iDefender, does completely negate 50% of damage by drawing your damage and become immune to it?

Im Bamf Joe’s build is one of the best offensive shatter build and I don’t see any mistrait/gear in your link. However he’s also dependent on his teammate to remove nasty conditions from him, even though he already has a lot of evade/stealth to avoid getting them. If you feel condition is eating you in solo then you probably need to switch mirror images to mantra of resolve. iDisenchanter can be good between shatter intervals but there are times when you lack condition removal.

You could probably do some sort of Phantasm build if you want, but you’d better take the position of a harasser in your group, basically single-target focusing out key players at range. Gear is up to you, but you could do these traits to have a bit of team-play in the build, but also having the ability to be annoying when caught on your own as well.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAraWl0npRtFrxKNcrRiqhYqXnuZylkKQJ78B

Personally, I’d do a hybrid setup. Dire armor, Berserker+Valkyrie trinkets, Rabid weapons, that should give you somewhere around 30% Crit and your Phantasms 50%. Make sure you use the iDuelist in the Chaos Storm to apply both Bleeds and Confusion at the same time, besides the 3k or so damage it can potentially fire in a hybrid build. Also have your team blast it as often as they can, Chaos Armor is an amazing and underused buff. Interrupt heals with the Pistol. Use your mantras to help your team with Stability and to Stunbreak, as well as to heal and remove conditions. Veil is for the group, but also for solo play, to be annoying and hide in Stealth pretty often while your Phantasms deal damage, alternatively to retreat if you notice your Phantasms dying faster than you can create new ones. You could use Time Warp, but it’s usually a bad idea, since it throws off cooldown rotations. Scepter is for the block if you should need to avoid some damage, while creating a clone.

It’s not entirely impossible to do some sort of Phantasm build in WvW, but there are perhaps other somewhat better options. Especially after the patch on the 9th. Mantras are starting to look very interesting with their AoE additions. But that won’t likely translate well to being caught on your own though.

Thank you for the replies again all, the help is greatly appreciated! Another question, is Sword/Sword as viable as say Sword pistol? I’ve even heard of people saying sword/focus is good if u want a bit more control. Any opinions?

Shatter builds are very versatile when it comes to weapon choice. I use Sw/Sw+Staff for large single damage in PvP. Except I trait halting strike instead of mental torment. Granted I have less burst but I can deliver more consistent damage outside of mind wrack.

It is very much a strong melee set up where I have to close in with iSwordsman and iRiposte. Each of them delivers 3-4k damage if crit, so a strong start if opponent aren’t careful with dodging and attacks. But if they do dodge I also baited out their dodge for following shatter. If they don’t attack me during iRiposte I then sent counter blade at them, which often gets me an interrupted damage with 1.5k halting strike hit. Chaos storm also becomes quite deadly when you trait for halting strike, but that’s not really about Sw/Sw :P

However, sometimes I feel that I lack chase potential (which hopefully the iLeap patch will address that) due to lack of stun. And without the stun your opponent will be able to dodge iLeap easier.

Furthermore iDuelist’s attack will lock into opponent when initiated, even if opponent goes into stealth. iSwordsman aren’t so good when it comes to stealth opponents due to melee. However people will normally dodge iDuelist’s barrage after taking a few hits (or take full if they think they’re tanky enough), whereas iSwordsman deliver instant damage. I think the effectiveness is very much dependent on your opponent so no weapon wins here.

So both sword and pistol has pros and cons. I’d probably go for the one I like the best, whether you want pistol with stun for landing shatter easier or sword with more ways to apply damage.

It feels like phantasm builds can work fine up to at least 5v5 in WvW. And I think it can work up to 10v10 if you’re better off picking targets closer to the edges.

This is the build I use:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhQQNAR7ansISZa2oGupB3aGJ1IM996LJHCK5XIA-TliIABkt/QPKp+6KA4n6DFqCjOKT2RpAAPEgt0NQnSwAAIAsynLchLcdWKgxWAA-w

With a build like this, you can drop duelists outside the main battle and they survive for a couple shots. The zerker might not make multiple passes, but the greatsword is still nice for hitting targets anywhere in the battle. And the mindstab skill is getting buffed on Tuesday.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

However I’m quite interested in iDefender, does completely negate 50% of damage by drawing your damage and become immune to it?

No, the iDefender loose full HP instead.

Problem is, its AoE based. Very short AoE at that. So basicly, you never get the damage reduction unless you’re standing next to it.

Good luck doing that in anything above solo duels. Its good in PvE (mainly during boss stacking, since its AoE it apply the 50% reduction to your group as well) but that’s about it.

Well well…….
Read this.