Guild Wars 2

I recently got my Mesmer to 80 and am beginning to look at putting together Exotic gear and finalise my build. Currently, I play PvE, but am considering giving WvWvW a try in the foreseeable future. The prospective build is:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgUQNAR8alwziqXUThGa9ICqHdX29dkU0awWJF42FC-jgyAYrkhzEkpJwkFICEQ6rIasVtioxqrx0vER128ioVDA-e
I shall explain my choices here.

Firstly, I have grown quite comfortable with Greatsword/Sword+Pistol. I recognise that Staff would probably be more optimal than Greatsword, but I prefer this weapon. Phase Retreat and the Staff Clones are excellent, but I prefer the functionality of Mirror Blade. Similarly, I much prefer Phantasmal Berserker to Phantasmal Warlock. I find Mind Stab near useless, but I find it a small price to pay. I mostly use the Greatsword for those two skills anyway, using the Sword/Pistol as my primary weapons for engaging in combat.

My combat style is largely Shatter-based. 90% of the time, I throw a coupe of Clones and a Phantasm, let the Phantasm use its attack (it seems a waste, otherwise) then Shatter. For 1v1 against weaker mobs, I Mind Wrack. Many vs Many situations, I find Cry of Frustration useful. I rarely use Diversion, mainly using it as an Interrupt when Magic Bullet is on cooldown. I regularly use Distortion against more powerful enemies (eg Champions) or when dealing with a group of enemies at once (use Distortion, Sword auto-attack to stack some Vulnerability, then Blurred Frenzy for more invulnerability and damage; 2-3 Illusion Mind Wrack to finish the job).

Ether Feast is the best general-purpose Heal we have, so no need to justify it :P

In Utilities, I have Null Field for condition cleanse. Honestly, I sometimes with this thing had a 15 second cooldown :P Decoy is mainly used for its Stun Break properties, though I sometimes use it defensively for the Stealth (eg if I need to make a little distance and am out of endurance). I am currently experimenting with Signet of Midnight as a second Stun Break and defensive tool. In my third slot I have previously experimented with Blink (I personally had a lot of difficulty using this well; probably not a skillful enough player) and Feedback (which I rarely used; more on why later).

I have honestly never once found any of the three Elites useful. I think Time Warp would be the most useful if I get into WvWvW or learn to play Dungeons.

Traits. I originally used Kai’s levelling build, and have been experimenting with it since.
Domination:

• (I) Mental Torment to make better use of Mind Wrack.
• (IV) Rending Shatter, as I suspect the AoE Vulnerability will act as a force multiplier, thereby making my contribution in group situations all the more valuable. Still experimenting, however.

Dueling:

• (II) Phantasmal Fury just seems plain useful. Phantasmal Berserker and Phantasmal Duelist both hit multiple times, so with a bit of Precision and Fury, they have a good probability of multiple crits for more damage and more Sharper Images Bleeds. YUM!
• (X) Deceptive Evasion seems essential for any Shatter build to get more clones up faster. It is also awfully useful defensively, as it often takes aggro.

Illusions:

• (IV) Masterful Reflection is the reason I rarely used Feedback. Though the duration and cooldown are not as kind, the fact that it covers all enemies (rather than a small group) makes it potentially more useful (IMO).
• (VII) Illusionary Elasticity is another I am currently experimenting with. Since Mirror Blade and Magic Bullet are both skills I make extensive use of, enhancing them seemed worth trying out. Currently undecided.
• (XI) Illusionary Persona. A no-brainer skill for a Shatter Build and it makes an absurd enhancement to the value of all Shatters.

Gear… I am the least certain about. I am a middling-skilled player (IMO). Definitely not skilled enough to be effective in full Beserker gear! Indeed, I have been playing since the week before release and still not earned the Lifetime Survivor achievement. I die a lot :P My idea in the gearing was to try for a balance of damage and survivability. I have several Traits influenced by crits, so a decent crit-rate and crit-damage are essential. I have Bleeds and Confusion, so a little condition damage seems advantageous, though Power would surely be more important.

I was thinking Carrion weapons, as that boosts Power/Vitality (my two primary stats) and gives enough Condition Damage to make my Bleed and Confusion worth-while (I hope). Sigil of Hydromancy seemed good for the greatsword, as I would usually want to make some distance after switching to it (ranged weapon). Sigil of Fire on the Sword adds AoE DPS to my primary damage weapon, while Sigil of Speed gives me ready access to Swiftness. I have been using a (lesser-quality) Sigil of Speed since quite low level and found it surprisingly useful!

For Armour, full Valkyrie again boosts my primary Power/Vitality stats while also making my Critical Damage meaningful. I was unsure about Runes, but Divinity seemed a good idea to boost all my stats.

For Jewels, full Knight brings in the necessary Precision and a little Toughness (to balance the high Vitality) without sacrificing Power. I was entirely clueless on what to do with the Back Item, so just went Berserker. I doubt I will get into Infusions any time in the foreseeable future, but the calculator included them, so I added them :P

Do I have the right idea here? Is there anything I really aught to do differently?

Other than Mirror Blade your boon generation is 0 so I would say lose the Signet if you are just using it for a Stun Breaker and pick up Mirror Images since you have Illusionary Celerity to reduce the CD already anyway.

Because you yourself say you mainly shatter and because the extra bounce from Mirror Blade isn’t super and the extra bounce on Magic Bullet gives Confusion (ahahahahahaahah) I would say it isn’t needed and you could take Precis Wrack or Illusionary Invigoration.

With your current gear you have listed I would say don’t worry about condition damage and go straight power/prec instead. So get Zerker or Knights Weapons or Caviler Weapons. With a little more push up of your Crit rate with Zerker of Knights weapons I would say get rid of Phantasmal Fury since you said you only allow your phantasms to do one attack around anyway a 50% crit rate is plenty. Instead take blade training.

The rest seems Okish.

Hi OP,
I second everything Hexxen said. Your build is power-based shatter and thus can safely ignore the confusion and condition damage part.
Here’s the shatter build I modified based on your original build. I know there are quite a few changes. Just use it for comparison: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgUQNAR8alwziqXUThGa9ICqHYH49dkU0awWJF82FC-jgyAYLioZaCMZJQpPN2EoQUNrIas6aMlLg+dR128ioVDA-e

Traits:
- Phantasmal Fury vs Blade Training: this depends on playstyle, if you spend most of the time fighting at range and not using sword much, Phantasmal Fury might suit you better. Otherwise, Blade Training is better well-rounded choice.
- Masteful Reflection is good, but its quite situational. Compounding Power is better as a default option. You can always switch to MR if you need it or use Mirror instead of Ether Feast.
- imo, Illusionary Invigoration is somewhat a standard choice for Shatter build just like Illusionary Persona. Also, just like Hexxen said, you wont benefit much from the extra bounce, at least not as much as the shatter reset at 50% health. Precise Wrack is also a good option.

Stats and Gear:
- i recommend Centaur Rune set since it synergizes well with any power build and gives you out of combat swiftness. But feel free to experiment here.
- i think your health pool is too large. This is actually a bad thing because your heal skills cannot sustain it over the course of battle. I’m sure as you become better and better a player, you realise you can replace vit gear for more offensive stats. The build I post is just an example of what gear combination can be used for a reasonable offense/defense stat ratio. Ofc for skilled players, full berserker is always the best option.

Hope my reply help. Have fun with your mesmer.

I barely shatter, so I’m only commenting things, I know about:

• The @sigil of fire might cancel the @sigil of hydromancy. I’d rather get another one (type) in either.
• As someone said, @Sigil of Midnight isn’t meant for your build. Instead, Mirror images is.
• Do you really need @Null Field ? I know, some ppl like it, but it’s usually inferior to pDisenchanter or CleanMantra …
• I really hate @valkyrie gear. There’s no point in getting crtdmg when you don’t have crtch. I saw that you somehow got 43% crtch, but I’d rather get knight gear. Toughness is better (than vit) anyways. Mixing both is also an option.
• @Rune of divinity? They’re not just expensive (~12g ea on EU) but pointless if you’re not going for celestial gear anyways. If there’s something you think you lack, use that instead of divinity.
• Are you sure, that you prefer @Domination IV over GreatSwordTraining or EmpoweredIllusions ?
• And in your @Illusion line, I’d probably choose +10% crtch and +9% dmg from illusions over bouncing (your only bouncing is mirror blade) and distorsion grants reflection.

Thank you for the advice so far. I have already taken most of it on (I never even considered the health pool getting too large to heal!), but there are a couple of points I would like a little more clarification on.

Hexxen.7216:

Other than Mirror Blade your boon generation is 0 so I would say lose the Signet if you are just using it for a Stun Breaker and pick up Mirror Images since you have Illusionary Celerity to reduce the CD already anyway.

I used to use that at lower levels (before I had Deceptive Evasion). I figured I was getting enough clones and started looking for something else. Is this still the best choice for my build, or would I be better looking at something completely different?

keenlam.4753:

- Masteful Reflection is good, but its quite situational. Compounding Power is better as a default option. You can always switch to MR if you need it or use Mirror instead of Ether Feast.

I had passed over Compounding Power since it seemed to suit a Phantasm build more than a Shatter one, as my Illusions do not last long. Does it boost the power of Mind Wrack (and therefore provide a big boost to a Shatter build)?

Nretep.2564:

• Are you sure, that you prefer @Domination IV over GreatSwordTraining or EmpoweredIllusions ?

I ran Empowered Illusions for a while, but since I mostly use Clones (no damage) and
Shatter with the Phantasms only attacking once, I felt it was not a great choice. Similarly, my Greatsword already recharges fast enough though Illusionists Celerity (the two skills I mostly use are always ready when I switch back), so I am confident I can go without it. That said, I am not 100% certain about Rending Shatter either.

Mirror Images is good cause you are not always going to want to use your dodges for clone generation as there are some mobs that you will need to save dodges for certain moves.

Great advice from everyone. Here are my 2 cents.

Yes, compounding power boosts shatter damage.

I’ve never used the signet of midnight, but you don’t have blink. I always use blink in every build. Especially useful if you try WvW (for example, decoy + blink = one get out of jail free card).

Rending shatter can be really good, but so is greatsword training. Try both and see which you prefer.

Elric, is this aspirational, or do you have the ascended gear yet? The reason I ask is that ascended gear is time gated, so I don’t want to monkey with it if you already have it.

Edit: I notice that all of you sigils have a cooldown. As all sigils share a common cooldown (one won’t trigger if another is cooling down) you are losing a lot of functionality. You can generally have a “on weapon swap” on each set as the cooldown is generally longer than the swap cooldown, but if you either trigger fire or swiftness you won’t get the hydromancy effect.

And another 2 cents …

• GS training would be better IMO than Rending Shatter in PvE. The decreased cool downs means you’re killing things faster. If you’re fine with the cool downs as-is, I would play with …
• Halting Strike. With your GS #5 and Pistol #5, you will be able to take advantage of that often. This also affects Diversion and you’ll likely find yourself using that F3 more often when taking this trait. The extra damage spike is very nice post 6/25 patch and remember each interrupt means damage mitigation on you.
• Compounding Power only works for your personal attacks (not phantasms), so keep that in mind. Alternatively, I would personally go for Precise Wrack as others have said, since you have a shatter focused build. Instead of IE, maybe experiment with Illusionary Invigoration. If you find yourself under 50% health a lot, those immediate shatter recharges can come in handy for extra damage, interrupts, or invulnerability via F4.
• Which brings me to another point – being shatter focused, use that F4 often if you’re in a bind. 4 long seconds of invulnerability is priceless, and you will have fresh new clones in no time to start nuking again.
• Gear-wise, there’s been great advice given. Personally I would establish a goal for where you’d like to be and then gear up accordingly. For your build/play style, I would recommend 3,000 attack, 2,400 armor, 18-20K health, 50% crit chance, 75% crit dmg. The rest of the stats don’t matter as much. These stats are easily attainable with the options we have, and I believe it’ll help balance your damage while getting that survivor achievement.
• Utilities, Runes/Sigils – others have had great advice.

Have fun

skcamow.3527:

…

• Gear-wise, there’s been great advice given. Personally I would establish a goal for where you’d like to be and then gear up accordingly. For your build/play style, I would recommend 3,000 attack, 2,400 armor, 18-20K health, 50% crit chance, 75% crit dmg. The rest of the stats don’t matter as much. These stats are easily attainable with the options we have, and I believe it’ll help balance your damage while getting that survivor achievement.
  …

I confess that I’m an idiot, but I can’t get those values. Can you tell me how you do it?

TooBz.3065:

skcamow.3527:

…

• Gear-wise, there’s been great advice given. Personally I would establish a goal for where you’d like to be and then gear up accordingly. For your build/play style, I would recommend 3,000 attack, 2,400 armor, 18-20K health, 50% crit chance, 75% crit dmg. The rest of the stats don’t matter as much. These stats are easily attainable with the options we have, and I believe it’ll help balance your damage while getting that survivor achievement.
  …

I confess that I’m an idiot, but I can’t get those values. Can you tell me how you do it?

This is pretty close. I kept the divinity runes as I wasn’t sure what direction the OP was going to go with those. OP did want to use MF food, so I included omnomberry bars for that and maintenance oil to boost precision.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgUQNAR8alwziqXUThGa9ICqHdX29dkU0awWJF42FC-jwyAYLioZaCMZBiABk8KiGbVrIas6aM1bk1wAq4kazLiWtIA2FA-e

Thanks. I spend an hour on a calculator trying to figure that out.

Others have given pretty good advice. You have a reasonably solid shatter build though.

For open world pve, shatter is great. Mobs have low enough hp that shatter bursts are able to easily rip them apart. Unfortunately, in dungeons and fractals, shatter builds are rather lackluster. The shatter burst isn’t enough to take out any mobs, and it has significantly less available group utility than a phantasm build, along with phantasm builds doing far higher sustained dps. You may want to consider changing around your basic play style for endgame pve content, though shatter will also work very well in wvw.