Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I’ve been trying to come up with a viable balance of the shatter/phantasm build and I’m looking for some feedback. Has anyone found if there is a good build out there that balances both styles of play in a good manner?

Here is my current build:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fhMQNAR8alknpRtdoxMNcrRiqxcqmQZXpRyAOokdsNA-TVDEABJcAEeT3jd7PElyg4uAAJq+jBPAAJOIBNp0DQlgVcgAA4AC8wRAIAACww1ZCnOLcfLcf75O35O35OnduzdOchLcSBQxCA-w

I’m open to feedback. I toyed with the shatter build for a month or so. I loved the DPS but found that so many people now are well aware of what mesmers are doing if they run shatter plus the clones gotta be pretty close to be effective.

Thank you.

I’m not very good with theory crafting and I am more about practical application, so I do have some questions.

If you’re going to use this in wvw, you still look pretty glass. In a bronze tier server, you can get away with glass more often than not. If memory serves, most phantasm builds run with two damaging phantoms and then pick up the Defender in utilities. Why did you decide against that?

Shatter is predictable, but phantasm requires that you keep them alive as long as possible. Are you intending to shatter as soon as their skill rotation is up?

Going back to you being glass, my next question is on your choice for Valkyrie; why? Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s pretty nice, in my early days as a mesmer (when I was ignorant and naïve) I used a Valkyrie set. But why? Yes, you get a nice boost to your health pool, but that means nothing when your armor attribute is low. People will still chew through you.

Is this meant to be a solo build or a group build? Again, in a bronze tier, it’s easier to get away with a solo build, but much harder the higher your server is ranked.

Assuming you’ve been running this for a while and not just a few days, how does the build handle? What are things you’ve noticed about it?

No, it doesn’t work well.

The point of Phantasms is to keep them up and hitting, the point of Shatter is to summon multiple illusions quickly and destroy them. So you have two completely opposite things that work against each other.

You can play it that way, but you will deal less damage then Phantasm/Shatter only builds.

Calliope.8675:

I’m not very good with theory crafting and I am more about practical application, so I do have some questions.

If you’re going to use this in wvw, you still look pretty glass. In a bronze tier server, you can get away with glass more often than not. If memory serves, most phantasm builds run with two damaging phantoms and then pick up the Defender in utilities. Why did you decide against that?

Shatter is predictable, but phantasm requires that you keep them alive as long as possible. Are you intending to shatter as soon as their skill rotation is up?

Going back to you being glass, my next question is on your choice for Valkyrie; why? Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s pretty nice, in my early days as a mesmer (when I was ignorant and naïve) I used a Valkyrie set. But why? Yes, you get a nice boost to your health pool, but that means nothing when your armor attribute is low. People will still chew through you.

Is this meant to be a solo build or a group build? Again, in a bronze tier, it’s easier to get away with a solo build, but much harder the higher your server is ranked.

Assuming you’ve been running this for a while and not just a few days, how does the build handle? What are things you’ve noticed about it?

Okies lemme answer your questions here:

1. I had some success with the glass approach in pvp but actually had more success with it in wvw TBH. Could’ve jsut been certain instances but I was aiming for a somewhat bursty approach but you’re saying to get the toughness up and sacrifice some vitality a bit?

2. Yes the intent was to shatter them once the rotation is up.

3. Valkryie was a choice I made from watching some other bursty phantasm builds. Wanted some HP and some additional ferocity as well. Was originally aiming to have 200% + of it but after running some tests; I think it could stand to be lowered.

4. As far as the defender in the utilities, I actually run that from time-to-time but im just experimenting with those right now. I like the defender most of all TBH but I like to see what other rotations of utilities work well with the build.

Short answer NO. Long answer NO.

Phant builds really don’t want to shatter unless absolutely forced to because your dps/pressure will immediately stop dead in it’s tracks. Shatter builds want to shatter as much as possible which makes your phants often get only a single attack off.

Very different mentalities.

Also phantasmal Haste is a horrible trait generally speaking. From the wiki………
Phantasmal Berserker 7.0s 6.2s
Phantasmal Defender 4.6s 4.2s
Phantasmal Disenchanter kitten 4.0s
Phantasmal Duelist 7.6s 6.6s
Phantasmal Mage 7.8s 6.6s
Phantasmal Swordsman kitten 4.0s
Phantasmal Warden 14.2s 14.2s (bugged)
Phantasmal Warlock 6.9s 5.8s

Godmoney.2048:

Short answer NO. Long answer NO.

Phant builds really don’t want to shatter unless absolutely forced to because your dps/pressure will immediately stop dead in it’s tracks. Shatter builds want to shatter as much as possible which makes your phants often get only a single attack off.

Very different mentalities.

Also phantasmal Haste is a horrible trait generally speaking. From the wiki………
Phantasmal Berserker 7.0s 6.2s
Phantasmal Defender 4.6s 4.2s
Phantasmal Disenchanter kitten 4.0s
Phantasmal Duelist 7.6s 6.6s
Phantasmal Mage 7.8s 6.6s
Phantasmal Swordsman kitten 4.0s
Phantasmal Warden 14.2s 14.2s (bugged)
Phantasmal Warlock 6.9s 5.8s

That’s extremely old info, very inaccurate.

Fay.2357:

Godmoney.2048:

Short answer NO. Long answer NO.

Phant builds really don’t want to shatter unless absolutely forced to because your dps/pressure will immediately stop dead in it’s tracks. Shatter builds want to shatter as much as possible which makes your phants often get only a single attack off.

Very different mentalities.

Also phantasmal Haste is a horrible trait generally speaking. From the wiki………
Phantasmal Berserker 7.0s 6.2s
Phantasmal Defender 4.6s 4.2s
Phantasmal Disenchanter kitten 4.0s
Phantasmal Duelist 7.6s 6.6s
Phantasmal Mage 7.8s 6.6s
Phantasmal Swordsman kitten 4.0s
Phantasmal Warden 14.2s 14.2s (bugged)
Phantasmal Warlock 6.9s 5.8s

That’s extremely old info, very inaccurate.

What a shame then that the game has fallen into such disrepair.

Godmoney.2048:

Fay.2357:

Godmoney.2048:

Short answer NO. Long answer NO.

Phant builds really don’t want to shatter unless absolutely forced to because your dps/pressure will immediately stop dead in it’s tracks. Shatter builds want to shatter as much as possible which makes your phants often get only a single attack off.

Very different mentalities.

Also phantasmal Haste is a horrible trait generally speaking. From the wiki………
Phantasmal Berserker 7.0s 6.2s
Phantasmal Defender 4.6s 4.2s
Phantasmal Disenchanter kitten 4.0s
Phantasmal Duelist 7.6s 6.6s
Phantasmal Mage 7.8s 6.6s
Phantasmal Swordsman kitten 4.0s
Phantasmal Warden 14.2s 14.2s (bugged)
Phantasmal Warlock 6.9s 5.8s

That’s extremely old info, very inaccurate.

What a shame then that the game has fallen into such disrepair.

I’m not sure what you’re saying. The wiki is maintained by players, not Anet. This particular group of information is incredibly labor intensive to determine to any reasonable measure of accuracy. Those numbers you posted were obtained by me. It probably took me 2-3 hours of recording and frame by frame analysis to get them. If you want to pay me for my time, I’ll be happy to do it again.

It is possible to pull off Shantasm, as it was done by Xeph and Xee in the early days of gw2. What you do is always shatter when you have 3 clones and sometimes 1 phant, and only shatter in desperation if you have 2 or more phants. It requires some thinking ahead, but it is possible to be done. This build would be an example: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsaRlknpMt1qxRNcrNiqxg6uSbNSGQBlsktB-TZBFwAl2fYxZAIxDAoaZAAHCAA

Fay.2357:

Godmoney.2048:

Fay.2357:

Godmoney.2048:

Short answer NO. Long answer NO.

Phant builds really don’t want to shatter unless absolutely forced to because your dps/pressure will immediately stop dead in it’s tracks. Shatter builds want to shatter as much as possible which makes your phants often get only a single attack off.

Very different mentalities.

Also phantasmal Haste is a horrible trait generally speaking. From the wiki………
Phantasmal Berserker 7.0s 6.2s
Phantasmal Defender 4.6s 4.2s
Phantasmal Disenchanter kitten 4.0s
Phantasmal Duelist 7.6s 6.6s
Phantasmal Mage 7.8s 6.6s
Phantasmal Swordsman kitten 4.0s
Phantasmal Warden 14.2s 14.2s (bugged)
Phantasmal Warlock 6.9s 5.8s

That’s extremely old info, very inaccurate.

What a shame then that the game has fallen into such disrepair.

I’m not sure what you’re saying. The wiki is maintained by players, not Anet. This particular group of information is incredibly labor intensive to determine to any reasonable measure of accuracy. Those numbers you posted were obtained by me. It probably took me 2-3 hours of recording and frame by frame analysis to get them. If you want to pay me for my time, I’ll be happy to do it again.

Wait a second. Let me get this straight. My mind is blown right now.

1. I post some numbers from the wiki.
2. You tell me that the information is very old.
3. I say well that’s too bad.
4. You then tell me that you’re responsible for the numbers and how dare I criticize the numbers.

WOW, my mind is blown.

You should listen to your doctor.

Godmoney.2048:

Fay.2357:

Godmoney.2048:

Fay.2357:

Godmoney.2048:

Short answer NO. Long answer NO.

Phant builds really don’t want to shatter unless absolutely forced to because your dps/pressure will immediately stop dead in it’s tracks. Shatter builds want to shatter as much as possible which makes your phants often get only a single attack off.

Very different mentalities.

Also phantasmal Haste is a horrible trait generally speaking. From the wiki………
Phantasmal Berserker 7.0s 6.2s
Phantasmal Defender 4.6s 4.2s
Phantasmal Disenchanter kitten 4.0s
Phantasmal Duelist 7.6s 6.6s
Phantasmal Mage 7.8s 6.6s
Phantasmal Swordsman kitten 4.0s
Phantasmal Warden 14.2s 14.2s (bugged)
Phantasmal Warlock 6.9s 5.8s

That’s extremely old info, very inaccurate.

What a shame then that the game has fallen into such disrepair.

I’m not sure what you’re saying. The wiki is maintained by players, not Anet. This particular group of information is incredibly labor intensive to determine to any reasonable measure of accuracy. Those numbers you posted were obtained by me. It probably took me 2-3 hours of recording and frame by frame analysis to get them. If you want to pay me for my time, I’ll be happy to do it again.

Wait a second. Let me get this straight. My mind is blown right now.

1. I post some numbers from the wiki.
2. You tell me that the information is very old.
3. I say well that’s too bad.
4. You then tell me that you’re responsible for the numbers and how dare I criticize the numbers.

WOW, my mind is blown.

You should listen to your doctor.

I see where he said he was responsible for the numbers, but not where he said how dare you criticize them.

Godmoney.2048:

1. I post some numbers from the wiki.

Ok, this is good so far.

2. You tell me that the information is very old.

Also good.

Godmoney.2048:

3. I say well that’s too bad.

Ah, this is where you went wrong. You didn’t say ’that’s too bad’, you decided to decry the failing state of the game based on an out of date table from the wiki.

Godmoney.2048:

4. You then tell me that you’re responsible for the numbers and how dare I criticize the numbers.

Not quite. I then tell you that I’m responsible for the numbers, and if having incorrect numbers offends you so much, I’ll happily spend another 3 hours updating them I get paid for it.

Godmoney.2048:

WOW, my mind is blown.

I feel bad for you.

Godmoney.2048:

You should listen to your doctor.

I generally do.

Fay.2357:

Godmoney.2048:

1. I post some numbers from the wiki.

Ok, this is good so far.

2. You tell me that the information is very old.

Also good.

Godmoney.2048:

3. I say well that’s too bad.

Ah, this is where you went wrong. You didn’t say ’that’s too bad’, you decided to decry the failing state of the game based on an out of date table from the wiki.

Godmoney.2048:

4. You then tell me that you’re responsible for the numbers and how dare I criticize the numbers.

Not quite. I then tell you that I’m responsible for the numbers, and if having incorrect numbers offends you so much, I’ll happily spend another 3 hours updating them I get paid for it.

Godmoney.2048:

WOW, my mind is blown.

I feel bad for you.

Godmoney.2048:

You should listen to your doctor.

I generally do.

Jesus Christ you sound so sad and lonely. There’s nothing more to say.

Anyways I was never even addressing you.

Have a good day. Try to get outside and get a walk in.

Godmoney.2048:

Fay.2357:

Godmoney.2048:

1. I post some numbers from the wiki.

Ok, this is good so far.

2. You tell me that the information is very old.

Also good.

Godmoney.2048:

3. I say well that’s too bad.

Ah, this is where you went wrong. You didn’t say ’that’s too bad’, you decided to decry the failing state of the game based on an out of date table from the wiki.

Godmoney.2048:

4. You then tell me that you’re responsible for the numbers and how dare I criticize the numbers.

Not quite. I then tell you that I’m responsible for the numbers, and if having incorrect numbers offends you so much, I’ll happily spend another 3 hours updating them I get paid for it.

Godmoney.2048:

WOW, my mind is blown.

I feel bad for you.

Godmoney.2048:

You should listen to your doctor.

I generally do.

Jesus Christ you sound so sad and lonely. There’s nothing more to say.

Anyways I was never even addressing you.

Have a good day. Try to get outside and get a walk in.

You’re on the fast lane for a ban friend. Keep up the attitude.

Gokil.2543:

Godmoney.2048:

Fay.2357:

Godmoney.2048:

1. I post some numbers from the wiki.

Ok, this is good so far.

2. You tell me that the information is very old.

Also good.

Godmoney.2048:

3. I say well that’s too bad.

Ah, this is where you went wrong. You didn’t say ’that’s too bad’, you decided to decry the failing state of the game based on an out of date table from the wiki.

Godmoney.2048:

4. You then tell me that you’re responsible for the numbers and how dare I criticize the numbers.

Not quite. I then tell you that I’m responsible for the numbers, and if having incorrect numbers offends you so much, I’ll happily spend another 3 hours updating them I get paid for it.

Godmoney.2048:

WOW, my mind is blown.

I feel bad for you.

Godmoney.2048:

You should listen to your doctor.

I generally do.

Jesus Christ you sound so sad and lonely. There’s nothing more to say.

Anyways I was never even addressing you.

Have a good day. Try to get outside and get a walk in.

You’re on the fast lane for a ban friend. Keep up the attitude.

“Never argue with an idiot.
They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.”
~George Carlin

Godmoney.2048:

Gokil.2543:

Godmoney.2048:

Fay.2357:

Godmoney.2048:

1. I post some numbers from the wiki.

Ok, this is good so far.

2. You tell me that the information is very old.

Also good.

Godmoney.2048:

3. I say well that’s too bad.

Ah, this is where you went wrong. You didn’t say ’that’s too bad’, you decided to decry the failing state of the game based on an out of date table from the wiki.

Godmoney.2048:

4. You then tell me that you’re responsible for the numbers and how dare I criticize the numbers.

Not quite. I then tell you that I’m responsible for the numbers, and if having incorrect numbers offends you so much, I’ll happily spend another 3 hours updating them I get paid for it.

Godmoney.2048:

WOW, my mind is blown.

I feel bad for you.

Godmoney.2048:

You should listen to your doctor.

I generally do.

Jesus Christ you sound so sad and lonely. There’s nothing more to say.

Anyways I was never even addressing you.

Have a good day. Try to get outside and get a walk in.

You’re on the fast lane for a ban friend. Keep up the attitude.

“Never argue with an idiot.
They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.”
~George Carlin

George Carlin’s gonna get so banned.

As a neutral 3rd party, I see the sum of what just transpired to be the following:

Reason – 1
Irrationality – 0

Whereas Fay = reason, and Godmoney = irrationality. Just my $0.02

Can we get back to the topic at hand? The OP wants to know if his build will work and what may need to be changed.

I know what my guild lead would tell you. Buy a full set of soldier gear, insert melandru runes, and get knight trinkets. Some things to keep in mind, I never worry about swiftness. I end up with 2-3min worth of swiftness. My group keeps up my speed. Melandru runes are there to help mitigate the conditions and soldier gear to increase survival. Then you offset the lack of stats you want (ie precision, power, whatever) in your trinkets and weapons.

When I solo roam as a mesmer I still go full glass and either roll Shatter or CI Lockdown. I am more likely to die as a shatter mesmer. I am on a low end gold tier server. I cannot cross the map without meeting one other player. I like CI because I have slightly more survivability even with a full zerk set of gear. (Due to my weapon choices + skill. I use staff + sw/f or pistol. I try to keep one push or pull if I run CI.)

Good luck!