Keen to get some thoughts on this.
Lately I’ve been getting incredibly annoyed at greatsword when in my time of requiring burst dmg, I pop the phantasm only to watch him bug out and hit for rubbish damage.
At least with the scepter we could grab an offhand sword/pistol phantasm.
What do you think?
I dont truly understand the whole thing. my i berserker hits quite hard (4K- 5k). I know it not make sense, but taking in account anet answer, is it possible to be server issue?(doesnt make sense i know but…)
Scepter autoattack is so terrible anyways, that any damage you gain from a nonbuggy phantasm is more than eclipsed by the decreased sustained damage from autoattack.
My Spatial Surge in berserker without might stacking can easily crit for 3-3.6k. It also hits multiple opponents whereas the scepter only hits a single opponent on its autoattack, and the scepter channel has a horrid windup that makes its seemingly good damage actually pretty low DPS wise.
Greatsword phantasm is also your only aoe burst phantasm. You can bring in a iwarden but quite honestly it dies more often than not before it can even finish half of the channel in any difficult dungeon/fractal level. Every other phantasm is single target, and single target is inferior to cleaving always since you spend the most time killing trash in fractals.
First thing I want to point out is, the test-dummies in LA are “fake” the izerker does not behave normally. They are “glued” to the dummies during spin and thus consistently land all their hits.
Secondly, doylaks are rather “fat” by nature and thus more hits usually land. Other factors for your damage numbers, is due to being a phantasm specc and being in pve instead of spvp.
My picture is taken from the golem dummies in spvp whereby the izerker behaves “normally” (not being “glued”) and better represents a “human-sized” target.
On topic: Yes, even with the bugged izerker, GS is still better than scepter as confusion is currently useless in PvE.
Don’t waste time with confusion and your life as a mesmer will be much easier. If I see someone using a scepter in pve I find myself shaking my head. Wikitten weren’t so, but it is.
Don’t waste time with confusion and your life as a mesmer will be much easier. If I see someone using a scepter in pve I find myself shaking my head. Wikitten weren’t so, but it is.
most mesmers who use scepter in pve dont do it for confusion >.>
they do it for the phantasm (phantasm builds have a choice between staff or scepter+x for ranged)
Phantasm build is useless in pve why the hell would you use one unless you bring a conjure hammer elementalist and just cast phantasms while meleeing with lightning hammer.
During some fights, like Mossman, it is really nice to have 2 or 3 blocks for when he tries to “back stab” you. Scepter/sword/sword is great for that. Also as a shatter mes with IP, I try to stay in mele all the time. Scepter is a decent oh kitten psudeo-mele weapon to swap to with a block and it does more damage (Attacks faster) the closer you are to the target. If you need a few seconds to recoup and plan on swapping to sword as soon as possible, I think it might be more effective than a gs as you dont need to go to 900 range to start doing max gs dmg. I also often riposte for around 7k which is really nice. With that said, I still carry 2 swords, a scepter, gs, pistol, torch and staff with me at all times. They all have their uses but you shouldn’t plan on using the scepter as your main weapon.
Side note about confusion, you should never build for it in PvE but it can be some nice bonus damage. Even in full zerker gear, 30 in illusions with a few stacks of might means you can start hitting 2.5k confusion dmg with f2 or scepter 3. For a few bosses like subject alpha, this is great. His cast aoe on everyone acts kitten separate casts and you can easily get a “bonus” 15k damage from confusion on him. Again, that is while I’m full zerker. Still not worth it to build for confusion damage though.
During some fights, like Mossman, it is really nice to have 2 or 3 blocks for when he tries to “back stab” you. Scepter/sword/sword is great for that. Also as a shatter mes with IP, I try to stay in mele all the time. Scepter is a decent oh kitten psudeo-mele weapon to swap to with a block and it does more damage (Attacks faster) the closer you are to the target. If you need a few seconds to recoup and plan on swapping to sword as soon as possible, I think it might be more effective than a gs as you dont need to go to 900 range to start doing max gs dmg. I also often riposte for around 7k which is really nice. With that said, I still carry 2 swords, a scepter, gs, pistol, torch and staff with me at all times. They all have their uses but you shouldn’t plan on using the scepter as your main weapon.
Side note about confusion, you should never build for it in PvE but it can be some nice bonus damage. Even in full zerker gear, 30 in illusions with a few stacks of might means you can start hitting 2.5k confusion dmg with f2 or scepter 3. For a few bosses like subject alpha, this is great. His cast aoe on everyone acts kitten separate casts and you can easily get a “bonus” 15k damage from confusion on him. Again, that is while I’m full zerker. Still not worth it to build for confusion damage though.
My mes is built specifically for blind confusion damage and I can keep a solid 5K per attack from the bosses spiking it up to 7k . And this is everytime they attack which is more than the phantasm attack speed and more often than mindwrack damage.
Phantasm build is useless in pve why the hell would you use one unless you bring a conjure hammer elementalist and just cast phantasms while meleeing with lightning hammer.
i disagree; even if a phantasm survives only long enough to put out one attack; thats still 5k+ damage from a small cast time; you then factor in thakittens easy to have atleast 2 phantasms up constantly (even in aoe heavy conditions) and thats a hell of a lot of damage
what else does mesmer have for pve? shatters? phantasms have higher sustained damage (and you dont burn your endurance for deceptive evasion), support? i think its a waste to build full support in pve (even so; phantasms give out regen, can clear conditions and half all damage taken – well; aslong as defender lives – which isnt long in most encounters)
… and then theres the fact that; whatever else you do; most of your dps will still be present (so many times in fractals ive left my duelists pewpewing whilst i go and res someone who failed to dodge; and i love summoning one duelist at tentacles then going about and continuing to collect crystals)
(ive used phantasm in every dungeon bar arah exp and fractals 30+)
Try to do fractal 48 and have a phantasm live more than one attack. Shatter builds get the full benefit from the phantasm hit — they just shatter it for more damage since not doing so means the phantasm is dying anyways, so you might as well milk the most out of it.
