Guild Wars 2

Can a phantasm build do as much damage as a shatter build?

Is there any way to successful combine phantasms with shatter: First summon phantasms and let them do their damage, than shatter them to summon new phantasms?
Because the way phantasms work, even with Phantasmal Haste there is always a time gap in which they stand around and do nothing - this gap could be use for shatter.

Shatter builds tend to have much better burst damage, you will never out burst a shatter build as a phantasm build that is for sure. However, once you ramp up the phantasms, they can really put a hurt on the opponent. And the fact that it is easy to deal damage using phantasms and that you can concentrate on other things while your phantasms damage the opponent. Shatters often require some setup, especially when using sword.

Shatter builds by default let phantasms deal some of the damage. They may not keep them up for extended periods but phantasms are a good chunk of the damage.

Same thing with Phantasm builds, although shatters are not really used so much for offense and a source of damage, it is sometimes used to finish off opponents

phantasms are only good at 1v1 unless they build for defensive stats/ traits in order to deal with aoe from multiple opponents.

which cant work with shatter because shatter needs to be as bursts as possible and cant trait/build defensively.

So you cant build for both to their fullest.

Although something everyone does not understand is that all Mesmers shatter and all Mesmers use their phantasms. The only difference is how you play your mesmer and what traits you trait for phantasm/ shatter.

You can shatter and then summon phantasms until your shatter recharges for example of a slight shantasm playstyle change.

I’m currently running the build in my signature. In it I run a few shatter related traits and a few phantasm related Passives.
With it I change play style to phantasm or shatter depending on the situation I’m in.

any mesmer build will always use phantasms in some way. They hit like trucks bro….

..

most of them anyway..

Shatter play style is to summon and let it do its thing while you position more clones and yourself for a large burst.

Its a quick hitting thing that deals a massive amount of damage over a very short period of time. In fast skirmishing fights that you hope/want to be over asap. It does lack sustain as its very easy to burn out every burst it has very quickly. Phantasm builds will lose out to Shatter every time when it comes down to efficiency in team based combat where killing other players quickly is key.

This is because Phantasm builds (they often actually avoid all F skills unless needed) need to slowly ramp up and place phantasms very carefully. once all three are up tho they will deal more sustained DPS than a shatter build can. In longer battles (most notably anything PvE related) A phantasm build will catch up to and then quickly pkittenter Mesmer for overall damage in a fight. They’re pretty decent in a 1v1 situation where ending a fight quickly may not be as important and you just need to wear someone down or annoy them till help arrives from one side or the other.

Is it possible to go 50/50? well kind of.. but they’re differing playstles and shattering 3 phantasms typically means a period of dead time that you wont be contributing to a fight until you can ramp back up. Shatter’s biggest asset is the huge bursts to end fights quickly so leaving phantasms up for too long ends up hurting more in the long run for them..

It’s usually just best to pick one or the other.

I would vote phantasm for PvE and maybe WvW depending on what you like to do there.

Shatter shines in sPvP and does pretty well in “overworld” basic PvE stuff as well tho i would not recommend it for dungeons.

Chaos.3579:

I’m currently running the build in my signature. In it I run a few shatter related traits and a few phantasm related Passives.
With it I change play style to phantasm or shatter depending on the situation I’m in.

Thanks for you build, really interesting.
Thing is - I would like to use a torch, I like the thief feeling.

Steinpilz.5078:

Chaos.3579:

I’m currently running the build in my signature. In it I run a few shatter related traits and a few phantasm related Passives.
With it I change play style to phantasm or shatter depending on the situation I’m in.

Thanks for you build, really interesting.
Thing is – I would like to use a torch, I like the thief feeling.

Np.

If your gonna run torch i would suggest changing out the focus trait in inspiration for persisting images. Or perhaps vigorous revelation (I run this when I switch my offhand for sword or torch)
Although focus really is a beautiful weapon with my build…the reflects counter engies, rangers, really anything that’s a projectile(kill shots fun). And the pull is just god. The best cc in the game IMO.
My favorite combo with focus is 4 5 4(during 5 Chanel) >leap swap. Set up for damage complete. After that you can shatter or let the warden do its work while you blurr frenzy or swap to gs for a mirror blade mind stab combo. ….really up to your imagination XD
You can also switch out gs training for the torch trait although I would not recommend it….but if you do condies would be the least of your problem XD

Oh and about utility. Blink decoy are staples but for the third thats up to personal taste. I like arcane thievery. Stealing might,stability,,fury and also having the ability to send 5 stacks of confusion or torment or poison(doom sigil dd ele). Just soooo goooood

Takes some skill using it though XD all about timing

Is there anywhere an overview which phantasm does what damage untraited vs traited?

Steinpilz.5078:

Is there anywhere an overview which phantasm does what damage untraited vs traited?

Not sure what you mean by untraited vs traited, any traits that affect phantasm damage affect them all equally.

I mean with and without Phantasmal Strength (Inspiration, Grandmaster minor).
Empowered Illusions (Domination III) does [B]not[/B] affect phantasms, or does it?

One more question about condition removal (difficult for Mesmers): In your experience, is Sigill of Purity sufficient to achieve this?

Generosity >>> Purity
for mesmers

Steinpilz.5078:

I mean with and without Phantasmal Strength (Inspiration, Grandmaster minor).
Empowered Illusions (Domination III) does [B]not[/B] affect phantasms, or does it?

One more question about condition removal (difficult for Mesmers): In your experience, is Sigill of Purity sufficient to achieve this?

Well, as I said before, any traits that affect phantasms affect them all equally. 15% is 15% on all of them. Additionally, empowered illusions does actually work on phantasms. Illusions includes both phantasms and clones, it’s just useless for clones since they don’t actually do damage.

The one trait that really separates some phantasms is Phantasmal Fury since iDuelist and iZerker hit multiple times

Flufferz.8907:

The one trait that really separates some phantasms is Phantasmal Fury since iDuelist and iZerker hit multiple times

That only has an effect due to sharper images though, fury affects all attacks equally.

Steinpilz.5078:

I mean with and without Phantasmal Strength (Inspiration, Grandmaster minor).
Empowered Illusions (Domination III) does [B]not[/B] affect phantasms, or does it?

One more question about condition removal (difficult for Mesmers): In your experience, is Sigill of Purity sufficient to achieve this?

Believe it or not, Mesmer’s have very good options for condition removal that are simple and easy enough to get. And are very reliable.

The mantra recovers 2 and 2 conditions instantly, on pretty much a 25 second CD. And you can trait for cooldowns or trait to have 3 charges on the mantra.

Mender’s Purity Recovers 2 conditions every time you heal. Again very good and for an easy investment of 10 points in Inspiration. The most common heal used is Ether Feast so it is pretty much every 20 seconds, although with Mantra of Recovery you can do it more often.

Also you can use the sigils of cleansing on both weapon sets, for a condition removal every 10 seconds.

And since you want to use the torch, you can trait for condition removal on it as well. Not to mention utilities like Null Field, or perhaps Arcane Thievery though it is less reliable and on a long CD.

Shatter condi is the better. But no denying it, Phantasm is really fun to play. Espacially if you know where to trait. Dont ask mine.. trade secret..

phantasm have more dps over time shatter have more burst. imo burst is everything, so effective damage shatter >> phantasm. But phantasm build are much less glassy than shatter builds and less depended on terrain. Shatter is better for pvp and phantasm better for wvw.

few times when i am lucky i can crit with Phantasmal Berserker (#4 GS) for around 6k so you can sometimes burst pretty wel + i am shattering phantasms in phantasm build sometimes but mainly for interupt/immunity …