Guild Wars 2

So I was just wondering if anyone has tried this combination to any success. I’m away from my laptop but I’ve been thinking about trying it. I feel like this could really work as a bursty Phantasm / Shatter hybrid build. Just theorycrafting the rotation would be something like s/p —> 5, 4 --> swap —> s/f --> 4, 4, 5 (four twice to drop your opponent and have iWarden spawn on their head), then the standard 3, 3, 2, —> shatter. Rinse repeat. Idk. Just wanting to get some thoughts.

That would be 5-4-WS-4-5-4. You could just run Sce/P + S/F for different auto attacks. The scepter autos hit decently hard, albeit slow, and the #3 also hits hard with zerks.

I posted this a few days back in a different thread,

“I was a glamour mesmer for a few months early this year, and after coming back after a 4 month break a few days back i picked up a berserker phantasm build. I think im going to try and figure out a build that is primarily phantasm with some glamour aspects to try out in WvW.

Wondering how well sw/p, s/f or sw/f with a 10/30/0/25/5 will work. In a 1v1 i would drop the warden first, switch to pistol while creating a feedback bubble, use pistol 5 to stun to keep them somewhat in the warden range, then use the duelist.
I have yet to test it out, but the duelist should do around 6k with crits and the warden should get up to at least 4k, and they should end up with around 10-15 stacks of bleeds and 10+ stacks of confusion in only a few seconds time.

What do you guys think about something like that? I’ll test it with full zerker gear, but i do have some exotic rabid gear left over from my glamour build i could mix and match in with the berserker to increase the bleeds/confusion damage, (im assuming that with the confusion nerf the rabid gear won’t beat out the berserker gear in a build like this, although veggie pizzas with their condition duration could be an interesting substitute)

edit: after testing it on random creatures in WvW the feedback bubble lasts long enough for you to get through the chain mentioned above, as well as use sword 3 twice to immobilize the target, giving you chaos armor.
iWarden→Feedbackbubble→pistol 5→P4→Sword 3×2→ Sword 2

Just need to test it out in a solo WvW battle to see how it works but i think its actually going to work quite well"

Sword/Pistol-Scepter/Focus? Definitely works.

For a while I clung desperately to my staff like a pole dancer, never changing it from my secondary weapon list.. But as I toyed around with new builds, I was forced to use Scepter because I wanted two offhands. It was awkward and painful at first, but started to actually feel pretty natural. Scepter/Focus offers a pretty good defenseive/decent offensive mix if the Focus is traited and you have Illusory Persona.

Like with most other Mesmer stuff, its weird at first but just takes a bit of practice and creativity to shine.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Sword/Pistol-Scepter/Focus? Definitely works.

For a while I clung desperately to my staff like a pole dancer, never changing it from my secondary weapon list.. But as I toyed around with new builds, I was forced to use Scepter because I wanted two offhands. It was awkward and painful at first, but started to actually feel pretty natural. Scepter/Focus offers a pretty good defenseive/decent offensive mix if the Focus is traited and you have Illusory Persona.

Like with most other Mesmer stuff, its weird at first but just takes a bit of practice and creativity to shine.

I completely agree with this. Ever since I started my Mesmer, I always had a Staff as my secondary weapon. It’s so addicting because there’s so much utility to it, but I really wanted to branch out (plus it freed up the 20 points I always felt obligated to put into Chaos).

Experimenting with new weapon sets/builds is so fun with the Mesmer, because they’re all viable if used properly (yes, even the torch, although perhaps not as effective as the others).

I started using Sword/Focus and Scepter/Sword two days ago, and I died a lot at first (although it didn’t help that I was also switching from a phantasm build to shatter) but you get better and better with practice.

I’m still far from great with it, but it’s fun once you get used to the nuances of a new build. I plan on updating my build thread with it once I’ve gotten better with it and feel comfortable posting it.

If you’re gearing up for a s/p + s/f build, and want to use the same sword for both, here’s a not-well-known-tip: if you leave your main hand empty in the alt-set, when you swap weapons it will only swap out the off-hand. So you don’t have to make/buy two of the same weapon to gear up

Good tip, but I think (hopefully) that he meant sword in one hand and scepter in the other, because using the same wep in both main hands is pretty silly :P

Zumi.6384:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Sword/Pistol-Scepter/Focus? Definitely works.

For a while I clung desperately to my staff like a pole dancer, never changing it from my secondary weapon list.. But as I toyed around with new builds, I was forced to use Scepter because I wanted two offhands. It was awkward and painful at first, but started to actually feel pretty natural. Scepter/Focus offers a pretty good defenseive/decent offensive mix if the Focus is traited and you have Illusory Persona.

Like with most other Mesmer stuff, its weird at first but just takes a bit of practice and creativity to shine.

I completely agree with this. Ever since I started my Mesmer, I always had a Staff as my secondary weapon. It’s so addicting because there’s so much utility to it, but I really wanted to branch out (plus it freed up the 20 points I always felt obligated to put into Chaos).

Experimenting with new weapon sets/builds is so fun with the Mesmer, because they’re all viable if used properly (yes, even the torch, although perhaps not as effective as the others).

I started using Sword/Focus and Scepter/Sword two days ago, and I died a lot at first (although it didn’t help that I was also switching from a phantasm build to shatter) but you get better and better with practice.

I’m still far from great with it, but it’s fun once you get used to the nuances of a new build. I plan on updating my build thread with it once I’ve gotten better with it and feel comfortable posting it.

I’m still extremely awkward with Sword/ + Scepter/, but I was in a 1v1 with another Mesmer yesterday where he went Sword/Focus + Staff, and I think he was a Condi Mes, or maybe a bad shatter mes, but he held me off, then I held him off and it went back and forth with him going below 50% and me staying above 50% (except once, where I spiked to 30% and had to use Mass Invisibility to wait on my heal), and we had both used all our skills (mostly) 3 times, including Mass Invisibility, so the fight was at least 4 minutes.

The only reason why I was able to win was I was able to interrupt him and nuke him whereas he was only able to interrupt me (with Focus 4) and then slowly whittle me. He also never used Blurred Frenzy (so he might not have had a Sword Mainhand, but he wasn’t using Confusing Images or the block either, so I have no idea). Which was a turning point. I would lock him down and nuke him, then try to shatter, and rinse and repeat whereas he would try to stack conditions on me.

I was still awkward with the set but I was able to pull off much more powerful combos without sticking to my trusty staff (sorry, old buddy). I feel like the same could be said with this guy, I’m not sure if he had Deceptive Evasion or Mirror Images, but it sure felt like he had one of those two and just never shattered… ever.

Normally, I’d say he was a bad Mesmer, but he wasn’t upleveled and the fight did last for 4 minutes.

Here’s a tip to maximize your Warden’s damage:

1. Cast Temporal Curtain
2. Begin casting Phantasmal Warden
3. Trigger Into the Void (instant cast won’t interrupt Warden)
4. Warden spawns on top of knocked down enemy
5. Illusionary Leap / Swap to immobilize enemy
6. Blurred Frenzy
7. Optional: Mind Wreck

Hey guys! First of all, thanks for all the replies. Secondly, to clarify, I DID mean sword/pistol – sword/focus. Realizing that this severely limits my options when I proposed this set-up, I thought scepter would be a waste of time. That being said, I did get a chance to try this set out today (albeit in pvp) and my results were that I absolutely hated it.
Normally I play a GS – Sword/Sword mesmer. When I tried this out today, it made me think to myself – iWarden cannot be functioning properly. It seems like a completely wasted skill because of two things 1. The cast time on it and 2. The fact that iWarden is immobile. I think that if iWarden would at the VERY least walk, it would be better. But ideally, if the cast time were removed from him, I think it would fix the issue. Idk. Does anybody else think along these lines?

Digno.6945:

Hey guys! First of all, thanks for all the replies. Secondly, to clarify, I DID mean sword/pistol – sword/focus. Realizing that this severely limits my options when I proposed this set-up, I thought scepter would be a waste of time. That being said, I did get a chance to try this set out today (albeit in pvp) and my results were that I absolutely hated it.
Normally I play a GS – Sword/Sword mesmer. When I tried this out today, it made me think to myself – iWarden cannot be functioning properly. It seems like a completely wasted skill because of two things 1. The cast time on it and 2. The fact that iWarden is immobile. I think that if iWarden would at the VERY least walk, it would be better. But ideally, if the cast time were removed from him, I think it would fix the issue. Idk. Does anybody else think along these lines?

I use to until I did a bit of out-of-the-box thinking. If you consider the iWarden only as an attack then yes, being immobile is very bad. On the other hand, if you think of it as a miniature Feedback on a timer, it opens up a lot more possibilities. When fighting ranged opponents that move constantly, it’s great to spawn the warden and then stand beside it while it’s twirling. This gives you a safe zone for a few seconds. Don’t forget that you can use Temporal Curtain to pull enemies into it. This is very easy to do because it’s stationary.

S/P + S/F works well (S = Sword or Scepter). I’m mainly Sc/P + Sw/F (sometimes use OH Sword instead of Focus) for a hybrid phantasm shatter build. My signature has the link to several versions if you’re interested. Just know that I haven’t tested them in PvP, only in PvE, dungeons, and some in WvW.

But I heard about the upcoming big patch that has trait changes and that may change or make current/new builds, so we’ll see!

Crossplay.2067:

Digno.6945:

Hey guys! First of all, thanks for all the replies. Secondly, to clarify, I DID mean sword/pistol – sword/focus. Realizing that this severely limits my options when I proposed this set-up, I thought scepter would be a waste of time. That being said, I did get a chance to try this set out today (albeit in pvp) and my results were that I absolutely hated it.
Normally I play a GS – Sword/Sword mesmer. When I tried this out today, it made me think to myself – iWarden cannot be functioning properly. It seems like a completely wasted skill because of two things 1. The cast time on it and 2. The fact that iWarden is immobile. I think that if iWarden would at the VERY least walk, it would be better. But ideally, if the cast time were removed from him, I think it would fix the issue. Idk. Does anybody else think along these lines?

I use to until I did a bit of out-of-the-box thinking. If you consider the iWarden only as an attack then yes, being immobile is very bad. On the other hand, if you think of it as a miniature Feedback on a timer, it opens up a lot more possibilities. When fighting ranged opponents that move constantly, it’s great to spawn the warden and then stand beside it while it’s twirling. This gives you a safe zone for a few seconds. Don’t forget that you can use Temporal Curtain to pull enemies into it. This is very easy to do because it’s stationary.

Hey! Thanks for the response. My whole thing about the iWarden is that it’s WAAAAY too easy to just completely waste a spell due to several things (dodges, blocks, simply strafing to the side a few steps). I like to think of iWarden as something like a Necromancer’s wells, (which are basically insta-cast at 1/4 second cast time), except it is cast on the target. I just really feel that if you have to TRAIT a phantasm in order for it to be even a little bit viable, (hiding behind it when fighting ranged characters), then it’s broken.

A Necromancer’s wells are nearly instant to cast and they do LOADS of damage. They have the same downfall as iWarden (can be avoided with dodges and simply changing your position). However, Wellomancers are completely viable because of the low cast time. I dunno. Something seems wrong with this spell to me. Just my two cents though.

The Warden is one of the best high-DPS phantasms if you use the pull combo mentioned by knackyknave. The projectile absorb is honestly just a gimmick at that point.