Guild Wars 2

any reason i’m seeing a crapton of staff sword/pistol mesmers lately? did this incredibly predictable setup get a buff or something?

/shrug Depends on the person, I’d say. I’ve dug that combo from Day 1. Now, if I could only get MH pistols … :P

Advent.6193:

/shrug Depends on the person, I’d say. I’ve dug that combo from Day 1. Now, if I could only get MH pistols … :P

main hand pistols on mesmer. i can see it now, the mesmer forums would be flooded with flame

Because it is easy to learn ? It does huge damage ?

I run Sword/Torch, S/S, 20-20-30-0-0. Take that !

Krispera.5087:

Because it is easy to learn ? It does huge damage ?

I run Sword/Torch, S/S, 20-20-30-0-0. Take that !

it does huge damage? you mean chaos storm? i’ve stood in the full amount of time a chaos storm lasts and taken 2k, maximum of 3 conditions have been applied to me. which immediately are gone when i use thievery or cleansing flame. even as an engineer or ranger i just sit in it and wait for this ‘huge damage’ you’re talking about.
unless you mean the sword/pistol part. which is good but also easily countered. kind of like 100blades

Lightsbane.9012:

Krispera.5087:

Because it is easy to learn ? It does huge damage ?

I run Sword/Torch, S/S, 20-20-30-0-0. Take that !

it does huge damage? you mean chaos storm? i’ve stood in the full amount of time a chaos storm lasts and taken 2k, maximum of 3 conditions have been applied to me. which immediately are gone when i use thievery or cleansing flame. even as an engineer or ranger i just sit in it and wait for this ‘huge damage’ you’re talking about.
unless you mean the sword/pistol part. which is good but also easily countered. kind of like 100blades

No, what about you read what you wrote. Sword/Pistol. Put Phantasm, shoot stun, swap, blurred frenzy. It’s an easy rotation.

Staff does huge damage if you are glass canon.

Then now it makes me wonder what’s the point of your thread ? You want all of them to shatter ?

Its faceroll easy and very strong like Thief.

Krispera.5087:

Lightsbane.9012:

Krispera.5087:

Because it is easy to learn ? It does huge damage ?

I run Sword/Torch, S/S, 20-20-30-0-0. Take that !

it does huge damage? you mean chaos storm? i’ve stood in the full amount of time a chaos storm lasts and taken 2k, maximum of 3 conditions have been applied to me. which immediately are gone when i use thievery or cleansing flame. even as an engineer or ranger i just sit in it and wait for this ‘huge damage’ you’re talking about.
unless you mean the sword/pistol part. which is good but also easily countered. kind of like 100blades

No, what about you read what you wrote. Sword/Pistol. Put Phantasm, shoot stun, swap, blurred frenzy. It’s an easy rotation.

Staff does huge damage if you are glass canon.

Then now it makes me wonder what’s the point of your thread ? You want all of them to shatter ?

nope, i’d just like a little thinking from my mesmer brosefs. cut and paste means easy to counter. also never saw much of this set up in the higher tiers of wvw, maybe that’s why.

I’ve used Sword/Pistol and Greatsword since BWE1. Since that big nerf to Greatsword about a month ago, I switched the Greatsword to a Staff (thank god I didn’t finish my Volcanus before that GS nerf).

However the thing is about Mesmer weapons is that the weapon set doesn’t really tell you all that much about the build. Myself and a guildie had the exact same weapon setup, but with exception to Deceptive Evasion and Illusionist Celerity, the two Mesmers had nothing in common. Mesmer Weapons are nice in that they can be used in a variety of ways: almost all weapons can be used for Power Damage just as well as it can be used in a Condition Damage build.

So does OP actually mean there is a cookie cutter build?.. or is it just that the weapon set happens to be the same?

Everyone tells me not to but I go Sw/Sw-GS more because I like the aesthetics…

Problem is pistol vs other off weps is like this:

Pistol (strait up yo) – high DPS phant + stun

Focus (triple threat) – utility/situational/best Dmg but sometimes unreliable phant + pull/push/swiftness

Torch (sneaky condi) – confuse phant + cloak with burn

Sword (bursty blade) – bursty phant + decent counter Dmg/clone generation and unreliable daze

Every wep can be used for a certain build but stun is just to powerful is some people’s opinion and thus being the obvious viable choice with added team support with lesser CCs

More skilled players will run a focus learning to compensate the pull to be as good a CC as pistol

Condi and sneaky kind of roamy types will run a torch (to bad mes IMO is sub par roam compared to other classes)

And us Derps with a sword off hand will enjoy how we look while we try to counter blade things for a spike and extra clone to shatter.

As for staff vs GS Well that depends on the person and if they prefer to be more defensive or offensive.

I use sword/focus and staff
People don’t use the scepter and torch because those are terrible terrible weapons. Probably the worst in the game. And less people are using greatsword because of it’s recent damage nerf. Focus is good in WvW and PvE because mobility and dat pull and pistol is great. I really like the offhand sword and I use it sometimes but the phantasm is melee which means it won’t last long and the counter skill isn’t as good as magic bullet or temporal curtain. Staff has always been good and it’s a great defensive weapon. People are sticking to these weapons because the other options just aren’t nearly as good. I wouldn’t blame players for using “cookie cutter” builds because the other options just aren’t as good for general gameplay, blame Arenanet for not improving the scepter and torch to something players can use without feeling like they’re gimping themselves.

I have to disagree about the focus being weak… simply put look at the CD’s on the main hand/offhand skills… in order of speed (with or without traits) staff > sword/sword > sword/focus > sword/pistol > sword/torch. Depending on the build the person is running—in my opinion any build—this is crucial because this dictates how fast you can pump out illusions and execute skills.

Another thing… with sword/focus, not only do you get the speed/push/pull/snare with curtain, place the warden first and drop the curtain on the warden (or any other fields for that matter) and the warden now becomes ranged (900) AoE due to whirls… Using leap finisher through the curtain grants retaliation (with sword 3, this boon is applied on cast and swap)… poison fields do weakness (leap), chaos fields do chaos shield (leap), fire does fire shield (leap), etc…

For PvP I really haven’t been able to find a comparable replacement to the focus as an offhand, I’d like to transition to the sword/sword and staff, but I can’t do without speed/push/pull/snare ability of curtain and the whirl finishers which includes an AoE condition removal (light) and fire/poison/chaos bolts :/

It is true that the focus is very versatile, and i like using it much more now.
But the pistol is very straightforward in its use.
And i can not count anymore how many times i’ve managed to actually kill all those pesky classes that are much faster than me cause i could stop em from running with pistol #5

Short answer to op is yes. Long answer is they buffed (soon to get nerfed) shattered strength and changed how vigor is accumulated. So now a shatter Mesmer will have 25 stacks of might and 100% uptime on vigor. Can’t catch em and if you get caught its a big hit for up to 16k. Staff is merely there as a defensive weapon. Sword and pistol for control, damage avoidance and damage.
Makes it hard to deny not going for that build when it is so powerful when used correctly. I prefer coming off from left field with rabid gear confusion condition build 0/20/0/20/30. Mass amounts of blinds, loads of confusion and 21k hp 1300 toughness to back it all up with. Makes the build one hard nut to crack.

Yes. You can thank Osicat for that though. His build is constantly bumped on the first page so naturally it’s going to be copied. It’s a good build though; with obvious flaws, so I can understand why so many people flock to it.

I enjoy killing them with my build, however.

It’s the most popular tpvp spec and everyone is always talking about it. So is that the players fault for wanting to practice the ‘best’ distribution or Anets fault for not having other distributions that are as equally apparent and effective?

I don’t understand. Besides staff, sword and pistol , we only have focus left. Or you expect people to use scepter and… torch? lol

My Mesmer’s current set up for WvW is Staff switching to scepter + torch.

Your post made me giggle.

Blame Osicat for making the build available to everyone and their cat. It’s also ANet’s pet spec, the one that keeps getting buffed while condition dmg mesmers like myself struggle and get nerfed.

Ramiel.4931:

Blame Osicat for making the build available to everyone and their cat. It’s also ANet’s pet spec, the one that keeps getting buffed while condition dmg mesmers like myself struggle and get nerfed.

And there’s the rub. Hell, I’m currently running 0/15/25/0/30 … and I have to kittening FIGHT myself not to go back to 0/25/15/0/30. ANet has indeed typically buffed shatter/hybrid shatter builds at the expense of other options. Hell, I like condi builds … pretty much most of my alts are at least hybrid condi/direct dmg. But, c’mon ANet – could Mesmer get some love on non-shatter spec, please? Quaggans’ll love you for it – just think of the cute Quaggans!

Still rolling a condition build… and still pwning… I am starting to think most players aren’t capable of building their own Viable Mesmers without a guide.

25K HP, 2.7k attack, 2k + con, 2.1k defense….

sinican.9250:

Still rolling a condition build… and still pwning… I am starting to think most players aren’t capable of building their own Viable Mesmers without a guide.

25K HP, 2.7k attack, 2k + con, 2.1k defense….

Those are some luscious specs. Let me guess, you’re heavy into Chaos/Inspiration/Illusions?

Sword/torch/staff 10 0 30 0 30 and totally owning

If you think thats bad, try rolling an ele. D/D for pvp, staff for PvE, traits and utilities are pretty much exactly the same.

Advent.6193:

sinican.9250:

Still rolling a condition build… and still pwning… I am starting to think most players aren’t capable of building their own Viable Mesmers without a guide.

25K HP, 2.7k attack, 2k + con, 2.1k defense….

Those are some luscious specs. Let me guess, you’re heavy into Chaos/Inspiration/Illusions?

And… Loving it!

I run a 0/20/20/0/30 condition/confusion Shatter Build with Staff and Sword/Focus though I do keep a Pistol and Scepter in my Bag and swap them when I get bored, but TBH other than speed buff from Focus, I rarely leave staff.

must be your server. not a “lot” of mesmers around in pve or pvp. And most mesmers I do see just like to spam #1 GS skill and play with phantasm builds. warriors however is another story. you couldn’t swing a purple butterfly net without catching a half dozen at a time

Ramiel.4931:

Blame Osicat for making the build available to everyone and their cat. It’s also ANet’s pet spec, the one that keeps getting buffed while condition dmg mesmers like myself struggle and get nerfed.

JonathanSharp.7094:

@ Mesmer: We’ll be addressing the current Mesmer build that’s spiking for insane damage. Sorry that change got through – it is something we’ll be fixing.

Note how he said they’re going to address the build, not the trait that’s making it powerful.
The end is nigh.

Sword/Pistol mesmer #29237984872308945827345.

Staff + s/s for dungeons with a shatter build. I hate having to wait for the duelist finish its array of attacks before shattering him, so the swordsman give me faster shatters and some field combos.

I use staff in spite of the gs cause of the amount of interrupts you might get with chaos storm, which is an aoe move, great for dungeons, also if im full zerk, so chaos armor is a given. I always carry a gs with me though, some dungeons need it.

Because they’re sub average players.

or, because that’s the 3 best weapons for the class… just maybe.

also for a fact, out of the weapons a mesmer can use, 3 need some serious rework, and that is focus( though this weapon is an almost ok), torch and scepter. since we have 7 weapons means 42% of our weapons aren’t even touched by most mesmers.

Sword/Sword/Greatsword here, even after the nerfs.

As nice as the pistol stun is, I can’t begin to count how many time I’ve used Illusionary Riposte to completely screw someone up. It cancels into blurred frenzy with proper timing as well, so you can stance to block an oncoming CC, then go directly into blurred frenzy while they press their followup keys in vain.

Greatsword, specced right, is 9 vuln/6 might on a 4.8s cooldown, and obscenely effective in group play where an ally is running a melee DPS build, and great as a transition tool AND a poke in fights, that you can throw out constantly with no concern as to if they dodge or not. Everything else is really just icing on the cake really, as Mirror blade is so strong.

I admittedly don’t play alot of sPvP, because I’m stuck with gear stats I don’t want on the set I use in PvE/WvW, and can’t get the stats I do want.

How many different builds do you think there are? Especially in tpvp shatter or Phantasm ? Every game has cookie cutter builds there will always be a mass of people then people that try to make a build they like work and say its viable

In spvp you have to play flavor of the month cookie cutter.

WvW has more room for improvisation. The fights are anywhere from 1v1 to zerg v zerg, there are interesting foods, racial skills, and even some odd pve things that still work or Mimic preloads. My craziest build was 2xrunes of grenth, ice, and svanir, major (not superior coz it’s bugged) sigil of chilling, ghost pepper popper food and greatsword at 50+ crit. Throw in blink/portal and at nighttime even d/d eles stay exactly where you want them. However, WvW is not what it was anymore. Thieves are a major threat outside of the zerg and they have too many gap closers and stealth for this to work.

So unless you stay with the zerg all the time, you have to use a build that can counter thieves. Such a build requires two things: enough survival to save you against at least one out-of-stealth macro; and enough damage to down the thief, otherwise he’ll restart the fight again and again until he wins. There are only two builds I know that can do that; a mostly zerker shattercat and rabid condition. In fact only the shatter is clearly superior, the rabid gets thieves because they fail to realize how much damage will proc after they try to restart; don’t expect this to work against experienced thieves in tpvp.

Anyhow, there must be some undiscovered fun combos working in WvW still. Good luck!

I’m running a 0/20/0/20/30 build with greatsword + scepter/focus (occasionally swapping to any of the other weapons) and I’m enjoying it. May not be the most damaging, but I can swap to a reflector, glamour specialist, mantra-healer, etc. on the go.

Lmao, it’s a fun build. I prefer GS/Sword-Pistol. It’s quite different in action.

I’d say now we have at least some diversity amongst mesmer builds, compared to the times before iBerzerker got nerfed. 99% of mesmers in WvW were running greatsword and had focus in second slot just for the travel speed. You saw nothing else.

Then, after the iBerzerker nerf, mesmers nearly vanished from the WvW battlefields for a while. Often we hadn’t enough mesmers to port our golems, unless someone logged onto his low-level mesmer twink.

Now almost any mesmer uses a shatter build (for obvious reasons), but they use different weapon sets, and I even see a condition mesmer sometimes.

It’s because Mesmers have few very effective builds. There is variety, but most of it is best described as ‘niche’.

Our mechanic is only truly effective and reasonably reliable if we specialize in such a way as to maximize Mind Wrack damage (a total of 3 traits that amount to roughly a 60% damage boost) and clone mass production so that even with their unreliable nature we can reasonably ensure being able to have 3 ready for a Shatter. The change to give us 3 stacks if might per Illusion shattered made this build even more effective.

While extremely effective, I’m not a fan of ‘band-aid’ builds that are required to make our extremely unreliable mechanic worthwhile. I wouldn’t mind being able to mildly increase the potency of certain shatters if they are key to your build, but the fact that the ability to so drastically pump up Mind Wrack has existed since beta and, even with a 60% boost it wasn’t on their radar just goes to show how innately weak it is.

because sword is the only melee we have and who doesn’t love a sexy beat down?

also Phantasmal Duelist, just because.

This is strictly PVE for me though, i haven’t tried Mes in WvW yet (lvling to 80 atm) my weapon sets and traits will probably change a bit. Also I use a staff as my main weapon sword/pistol are secondary.

I worked on a alternative build to normal shatter focused pistol/sword build. Its still alot of shatters but a hybrid build with phantasms and insane numbers. Still the strong survival abilitys from a normal shatter build.

/Osicat

Lightsbane.9012:

any reason i’m seeing a crapton of staff sword/pistol mesmers lately? did this incredibly predictable setup get a buff or something?

I’ve used that setup since halfway through BWE1. It took me half the BWE to settle on a combo I liked, and I fell in love with Staff + Sword/Pistol. The two sets have great synergy, and you have an offensive and defensive option…making that setup more adaptable. Maybe more people have discovered it? The better question is, how many of these players actually use that setup to its max effectiveness?