Guild Wars 2

I dislike Greatswords for anything other that trash or loooooong range fights in PvE, since the phantasm deals all the damage to be honest.

I much prefer scepters and will probably craft meteorlogicus for my mesmer when I acquire sufficient funds (I play condition builds a lot in pvp/wvw). In PvE you can still use sword/focus for melee and AoE, and then use scepter/sword against bosses for the iswordsman burst and and ranged auttoattack that probably doesn’t deal much less DPS than the GS. Plus the 2 blocks are nice for when you gain aggro, and the confuse ray is okay as well. Probably a 10/30/0/30/0 or 10/30/0/0/30 build, with mostly zerker and valkyrie gear. What do you guys think?

#1. My limited testing (back in the spring) showed GS did almost 20% damage than Scepter/Sword when at max range. The lead falls below 10% at melee range.
#2. You might get more DPS using Pistol instead of OH Sword.

Hmm I’ll try out pistol too. Its disadvantage (or advantage) is that the iduelist stacks way more bleeds, which could mess up the DPS of condition builds in the party, or just contribute a little bit of extra damage in the long run.

Phantasms deal all the burst really, and so few encounters will actually have you at 1200 range the whole time, which is why I see a weakness in greatsword.

Scepter is more of a condition weapon I think. The auto attack chain will override a phantasm if you have three up, and it does less DPS than sword.

10/30/0/30/0 is a nice build to use, I’ve been giving 0/20/0/25/25 a go too. You lose empowered illusions and traiting on either your sword or pistol and the grandmaster trait in inspiration, but you gain phantasmal haste and IC.